NBC's Peacock Productions in quiet fight with rising writer's union
Top stars stay silent as Writer’s Guild of America-East accuses NBC’s Peacock managers of union-bashing NBC Universal has two seemingly unrelated problems on its hands. First, there’s MSNBC’s falling fortunes: the cable network has launched a new schedule with Ronan Farrow at the helm, an attempt to get past a series of mis-steps that resulted in the departures of long-term anchor Martin Bashir and short-lived host Alec Baldwin.
Then there’s a more intricate and increasingly public issue: an attempt by the writer’s union to gain recognition at Peacock Productions, the non-fiction production arm of NBC News.
The Writer’s Guild of America-East (WGA-E) has been fighting a protracted, under-the-radar battle with NBC’s Peacock managers over recognition that resulted in a vote last year. But the company has disputed the eligibility of some producers to vote in the ballot, and more than six months later, the count has still not been finalized. Peacock has been accused of the union-bashing tactics that its MSNBC often reports on; Peacock will only say that it is upholding the law.
In the meantime, WGA-E sought support from MSNBC’s left-leaning stars, which it assumed would support its efforts. Blustery Ed Schultz, who has done more than most MSNBC hosts to feature labor stories on his show, insists he has "never wavered one bit ever” in supporting unions, but refuses to take a public stand on the Peacock matter. Another MSNBC star, Chris Hayes, won’t comment on his reported meeting with the WGA-E, and three others, Rachel Maddow, the Rev Al Sharpton and Lawrence O’Donnell, have kept out of it entirely.
Founded in 2007, Peacock produces shows such as Fatal Encounters and Disappeared for Investigation Discovery, and episodes of MSNBC’s Caught on Camera. All are fairly cheap to create and none of these shows require what most people call "writers”. Instead, they’re put together by armies of producers and less-experienced associate producers. So, what does the writer’s union have to do with it? A lot, says Justin Molito, director of organizing at WGA-E. "We’re a union for creative professionals and we’re here to help professionals tell stories.”
The WGA-E campaign first gained momentum at smaller non-fiction production houses. An agreement with Atlas disintegrated, but deals with Lion TV and Optomen offered paid time off and minimum rates. But the WGA-E’s ultimate goal is industry-wide multi-employer portable health insurance. "We need a critical mass of the companies here in New York City, the larger companies, the companies making the most shows,” says David Hill, strategic director for WGA-E.
The WGA-E began testing the waters among Peacock staffers in early 2012. That’s when the company began its attempt to fight back against the moves. A freelance producer who spoke to the Guardian says that in spring of that year, before WGA-E even announced its intentions, he received a call from Special Response Corporation, a security firm with a dedicated strikes and labor division. "[The caller] asked me about my [union] intentions. He said that he heard ‘some trouble might be coming’.”
In another pre-emptive move, Peacock created new freelance contracts that included pathways to promotions, healthcare for up to six months after leaving, and performance reviews. Overtime, however, remained out of the question. "Introducing overtime might necessitate a reexamination of the pay structure to account for it,” wrote SVP Knute Walker in an email. Union supporters dismissed the concessions as "cynical” and organized through the summer.
Then, in November 2012, Peacock executives began holding one-on-one meetings with potentially pro-union producers. Such meetings are legal, so long as the employer doesn’t specifically urge the employee to vote one way or another. Warnings about the general consequences of union membership are permitted, though.
None of the meetings was "outwardly threatening”, says one producer, David Mettler. "I left those meetings shaking. When your superiors, the people who decide whether or not they will continue to employ you, sit you down alone in an office and exhort you to vote a certain way, against the union, it’s definitely uncomfortable. Whether it’s intentional or not, it feels intimidating.” Mettler says he was soon encouraged to start looking for work elsewhere. Other producers told similar stories.
With a ballot looming, Peacock’s boldest step was to lodge a last-minute claim that producers were "supervisors” and therefore ineligible to vote. This would leave more associate producers as the voting pool, demolishing the odds of a union win. WGA-E organizer Molito called Peacock’s play a "sophisticated form of voter suppression.” It worked: the vote was delayed as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional director Karen Fernbach investigated. Five months later, in April 2013, she ruled in favor of freelance producers: "The employer has failed to meet its burden of showing that the freelance producers and run of show producers are supervisors.”
She also revealed just how "true crime” television is constructed from the top down, and why producers are more like writers than we imagine. "Senior producers [not on the shoot] reviewed, edited and sometimes rewrote the treatment” that outlines the episode’s story, she wrote in her report, dated 30 April 2013. "The producer gathers the materials from the shoot, chooses sound bites, reads the transcripts and then writes the script. The record clearly demonstrates that at this phase, the senior producer [not on the shoot] reviews the script and provides notes which are then incorporated into the script.”
Peacock is appealing the regional NLRB ruling to the national organization. A decision is awaited. Peacock declined a request to be interviewed, but said in a statement: "We believe that Peacock’s producers hold meaningful supervisory authority, which according to federal labor law, excludes them from guild representation. Until the board decides which votes should be counted, there is no way to determine the outcome of the election.”
The NLRB reported that Peacock producers and associate producers create 200 to 250 hours of non-fiction television a year. An unrelated WGA-E study from last year found that 84% of freelance producers work more than 40 hours a week, and some producers report working as many as 100-hour weeks during particularly grueling shoots. Episodes once done in 13 weeks are now being produced in 11, while timely one-offs like the Weather Channel’s Sandy: Anatomy of a Superstorm, are thrown together in a matter of days. Only 11% of producers report receiving overtime pay and the WGA-E estimates the non-fiction cable industry owes $40m in back pay and penalties. One freelancer described production "houses” as "sausage factories”. Another used the term "digital sweatshop”.
Meanwhile, executive pay rises at Comcast. NBCUniversal CEO Stephen Burke received a five-year contract extension last year that boosted his base pay from $2.2m to $2.6m, a 20% increase, and gave him a $5m signing bonus. He received a $3m signing bonus in 2011.
As a final decision on the ballot row is awaited, the WGA-E’s campaign continues. MSNBC stars may have declined to make public statements of support, but the union found support elsewhere in 30 Rock: 57 NBC writers last fall sent a letter to NBC-Universal CEO Steve Burke demanding Peacock count the votes. "NBC makes a lot of money off of the shows that these freelancers create, and should collectively bargain with those creators,” said the writers, including nine from Jimmy Fallon’s former Late Night Show, six from 30 Rock, and a dozen from Law & Order.
WGA-E recently held a vote at Sharp Entertainment, producers of TruTv’s Criminal Records and a 20 Most Outrageous special for NBC-Universal’s Bravo. Union supporters are confident Peacock will eventually fold, too. "This is not going to end in stalemate,” said one producer. "This is just where the industry is headed.”
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