Peacock Productions is, or was, the part of NBC News’ operations that created nonfiction television series for NBC and other networks. A number of years ago, the “freelance” writer-producers at Peacock unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East. (A bit of nomenclature:  Peacock used the label “freelancers” to describe the producers and associate producers hired to work on particular shows, although often they stayed on to work on other shows, or to do development work.) Management refused to honor the employees’ decision and spent years fighting against it at the National Labor Relations Board. Ultimately the NLRB ordered the company to recognize the WGAE as the employees’ collective bargaining representative, and negotiations ensured. In January 2019, the employees ratified their first WGAE collective bargaining agreement, which included many gains unique in the nonfiction TV world.

This cynical maneuver is intended to bust the union, to continue the company’s years-long effort to reject its employees’ decision to be part of the WGAE and to bargaining collectively on critical workplace issues. Freelance employees creating nonfiction programs must be covered by the WGAE collective bargaining agreement, which was the product of years of struggle by freelance writer-producers and which protects their interests and reflects real gains in employment terms and conditions.

On April 15th, the WGAE filed another unfair labor practice charge against NBC at the NLRB.  As that charge states, the Guild contract must be applied to the freelance producers and associate producers who are hired, and who will be hired in the future, to craft nonfiction programs at “NBC News Studios” (or whatever new label the company might dream up). That’s what the freelance writer-producers struggled for so many years to achieve, and that’s what the law requires.