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KPCC newsroom votes to join SAG-AFTRA
SCPR's Pasadena headquarters, home of KPCC.
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The KPCC newsroom is going union. News staff have voted 35 to 26 in favor of joining SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors and broadcast journalists. The union will represent 65 reporters, producers, show hosts and news anchors.
The election was held on January 11; the votes were tallied today by the National Labor Relations Board.
“The vote count is clear,” said reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, a member of the in-house union organizing committee. “We look forward to sitting down with management to collectively bargain for the content employees at KPCC.”
Management expressed a similar view. “We respect the right of people to collectively bargain and to vote, and we are looking forward now to the negotiation phase,” said Bill Davis, President and CEO of KPCC’s parent company, Southern California Public Radio.
Now that the vote is over, “we go back to working as one unit,” said Davis. “The organization’s mission, goals and objectives do not change one bit.”
Guzman-Lopez echoed those sentiments.
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“We want to continue making this a very strong news organization, and we hope that this will allow us to grow even more.”
In November, the union organizing committee presented SCPR management with a letter signed by 41 employees expressing their desire to organize.
The company and the union will now begin negotiations on a contract.
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