WGA East Members at Spotify Studios and The Ringer Reach Tentative Agreements With Spotify

Writers Guild of America East members at New York-based Spotify Studios (formerly Gimlet Media and Parcast) and The Ringer have both reached tentative agreements with Spotify on new collective bargaining agreements.

Two of the first podcast production companies to unionize with the WGAE, both bargaining units made important gains in wages and achieved first-of-their-kind protections against Artificial Intelligence (AI) during negotiations for their second union contracts.  The tentative agreements will now go to the Spotify Studios Union, The Ringer Union and the WGAE Council for ratification votes. Details of each collective bargaining agreement will be made public upon ratification. The contract also marks a new chapter: beginning with the ratification of this agreement, the Gimlet and Parcast Unions will join together to become The Spotify Studios Union.  

"Our joint unit went into these negotiations battered by brutal rounds of layoffs," said the new Spotify Studios Union. "So many of our talented colleagues were cast aside in a restructuring that was only necessary because of decisions made by Spotify leadership. Still, during the course of negotiations, Spotify Studios Union members came together and found a unified voice to defend our rights as workers.” Read more here.