NBC Production Workers Have Been Trying to Form a Union For More Than a Year With the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE).  But Peacock Productions, a Subsidiary of NBC, Has Not Acted in Good Faith in Negotiations.  And That’s Why the National AFL-CIO - President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler and Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre – Have Sent a Letter to MSNBC Hosts - including Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O'Donnell - Asking Them to Meet With the Workers and Address These Issues.

To Date, Only Hayes Has Met With the Workers.

Trumka, Shuler and Gebre Wrote: Peacock Productions Has Forced Workers to Attend Mandatory Anti-Union Meetings and Has Employed Legal Maneuvers to Impound the Ballots the Workers Cast in a June Election. These Actions are Wrong and We Hope You Will Stand With Your Colleagues to Denounce Them.  Millions of Viewers Across the Country Look To Your Shows as a Platform for Progressive Ideas and Advancing Workers’ Rights.  The workers at Peacock Respect Your Work, As Do We, and Have Seen the Influence You Have on Many Issues Important to Working People.  We Urge You to Take the Time to Meet With These Producers and Associate Producers to Hear Their Concerns Firsthand.  We Would Be Glad to Join You.  We Know You Will Be Moved, As We Have Been.  The Letter Concludes: We Hope You Heed This Call to Help These Brave Men and Women Appeal to Peacock and to NBC to Cease Their Anti-Union Tactics.  Meet With Them, Talk to Them, Call Your Viewers to Action, and Let’s Make a Difference Together.

Via Salon: MSNBC Hosts Quiet in Union Dispute, AFL-CIO Suggests/After Alleged Union-Busting By NBC-Owned Company, AFL-CIO Calls Out Maddow, Sharpton, O'Donnell, Schultz And Hayes

The National AFL-CIO Urged MSNBC Hosts Earlier This Week to Defy “Fear and Concern” and Break Their Silence about NBC’s Alleged Anti-Union “Hypocrisy.”  None of the Five High-Profile Progressives They’ve Targeted – Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes and Ed Schultz – Has So Far Directly and Publicly Addressed Allegations that NBC-Owned Peacock Productions Exploited Fear Tactics and Legal Tricks to Avert Unionization.

NBC and the Five Hosts Did Not Immediately Respond to Inquiries or to Prior Requests For Comment Over the Past Week.

“These Hosts Have a Particular Responsibility,” National AFL-CIO Organizing Director Elizabeth Bunn Told Salon. “They Have Respect and They Have ‘Clout’ that Producers Alone Don’t Have, and They’re Part of the Larger Progressive Movement.”

She said the Five Anchors were “Uniquely Positioned to ‘Hear’ the Stories of What Their Parent Company Is Doing to Workers, and Broadcast That to the Larger American Public.”

Bunn Urged Them to Follow the “Inspirational Example” of Workers at Peacock Productions – a Company that Produces Some MSNBC programming – Who’ve Chosen to Take Collective Action.

“We’re Speculating that There’s a Level of Fear and Concern” Among the Five Celebrity Anchors, Bunn told Salon. “But What We’re Hoping Is If They Meet Individually or Collectively With the Workers,” and Hear “How Abhorrent This Corporate Behavior Is,” that “As a Group, They Will Speak Out and Exercise Their ‘Collective Voice,’ Just Like Workers at These Production Companies Have Exercised Their ‘Voice’ in Seeking to Form a Union.”

Bunn, meanwhile, Blasted NBC as “Guilty of Hypocrisy and Guilty of Exploiting Its Workforce,” adding, “One Would Hope Than An Employer Whose Mission Is to Communicate Accurately Would Behave More Responsibly.”

You Can Access this Labor News Story Directly At: https://portside.org/2013-12-18/msnbc-hosts-quiet-union-dispute-afl-cio-suggests