StoryCorps Workers Rally for a Fair Contract

StoryCorps workers and supporters rallied Thursday at the organization’s headquarters in Brooklyn as members of the StoryCorps Workers Union-CWA Local 1180 continue their fight for a fair contract.

StoryCorps may be best known for its tear-jerking NPR segments and animations on social media, but the organization has a long history of union-busting and is currently denying basic rights and protections to its staff. Members of the StoryCorps Workers Union have been bargaining for a new contract for more than eight months, seeking to bring working conditions at StoryCorps up to a reasonable nonprofit industry standard. Their demands include protections against replacing union labor with non-union workers, industry-standard parental leave, an equitable seniority-based layoff process and fair severance package, a fair disciplinary process, and fair wages and benefits.

Those demands have been met with scorn from management, which has hired a union-busting law firm and refused to negotiate on basic protections. Union organizers have also faced retaliatory terminations for advocating for better working conditions. Meanwhile, StoryCorps CEO Sandra Clark and founder David Isay make a combined $800,000 in compensation, more than ten times what the highest-paid workers in the union make.

StoryCorps workers are calling on management to bargain in good faith and agree to a fair contract that provides the basic rights, protections, wages and benefits they are seeking. Click here to sign their petition, follow them here, and also, save the date for an October 8th rally from 6-9PM at the Brooklyn Museum where members will be shutting down management's annual Gala-- RSVP here.