Shock: Allegedly Pro-Union, Pro-Working Class Internet Media Company "The Young Turks" Refuses to Recognize Union

Cenk Uygur's argument is that unions cost companies money and might even put them out of business.

Oh really?

Meanwhile, he continues promoting unions for other companies -- just not his own.

[A] Twitter handle claiming to represent TYT employees had announced on the social media platform their intention to form a union. In the staff meeting, the network’s co-founder and influential host, Cenk Uygur, urged employees not to do so, arguing that a union does not belong at a small, independent outlet like TYT, according to two workers who were present. He said if there had been a union at the network it would not have grown the way it has.

His talk -- at times emotional, the staffers said, with Uygur throwing his papers to the ground at one point, and chastising an employee -- seemed to contradict the progressive, worker-first ethos that TYT broadcasts to its millions of lefty followers. Jack Gerard, who is acting as the company’s chief operating officer as Uygur runs for Congress in California, told the staff they were not discouraging unionization.

But the message from Uygur was clear -- and, to at least some staffers, discouraging.

...

In an interview with HuffPost, Uygur said he is a strong supporter of unions, especially at large corporations that aren’t sharing profits with their workers. But he said he worries a unionized workforce would bring new legal and bureaucratic costs that TYT can't sustain.

...

IATSE has asked TYT management to voluntarily recognize the union through "card check," saying a clear majority of staffers who would be represented have signed union cards. That has often been the course at liberal media organizations, so staff can avoid the pressures of a union election. IATSE would represent the production and post-production staff -- about a quarter of the company’s 65-employee workforce.

TYT refuses to go via that route and insists on a secret ballot election counted by a third party -- something that would be more difficult and more expensive to pull off.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka calls Cenk Uygur's stace "union-busting, pure and simple."

Meanwhile, Uygur continues running for Katie Hill's old Congressional seat -- while running as a supposedly "pro-union" Democrat, and also claiming he's not opposed to a union at his own company.

Which... of course is a lie.

posted by Ace at 03:59 PM

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