The NBCUniversal CEO got a direct request today from over 40 writers on the network’s shows past and present that he let a June unionization vote at Peacock Productions go forward. “Our understanding is that these ballots have been impounded because NBC has chosen to pursue a legal strategy to nullify the votes of over half of the eligible voters in this election on the grounds that they are supervisors and not entitled to any protections under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA); a strategy that has already failed at the regional level of the NLRB,” said a letter (read it here) to Steve Burke from the Writers Guild of America, East and signed by Tom Fontana, Royal Pains’ EP Michael Rauch as well as writers from Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and over a dozen other shows. Freelancers at Peacock Productions voted on June 14 on joining the Writers Guild of America, East. NBCU quickly appealed the vote to the National Labor Relations Board on the basis that nearly half of the 100 freelance producers who voted are in supervisory positions and not entitled to the union protection and benefits like heath insurance, residuals and pensions. The WGA East has been on the move on various fronts to unionize non-fiction production companies like Peacock since 2009.

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The WGA East claims that writers at NBC News’ Peacock, which produces reality/documentary programming for cable like True Crime With Aphrodite Jones, Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda and Caught On Camera, have been trying to organize for over a year but NBCU is blocking them. After the regional NLRB director allowed June’s vote, NBCU had the ballots impounded while it pursued its appeal. Today’s letter from the writers asked Burke to drop that appeal, let the votes be counted and, if unionization wins, to start collective bargaining negotiations. “We are mystified by NBCU’s refusal to honor the results of the NLRB election,” said WGAE Executive Director Lowell Peterson in a statement Monday. “The company employs a lot of Guild members and, as the letter we delivered to the CEO makes clear, those members don’t think their colleagues should have fewer rights and lesser conditions.” 

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