Spotify Parcast Union members unanimously vote to ratify the first contract –

Parcast staff affiliated with the Eastern American Writers Guild voted unanimously to ratify their first union contract.

In the ratification vote, 100% of the negotiating team, made up of 56 members, including content writers, fact checkers, producers, researchers and other workers, voted “yes”. On April 6, a probable agreement was reached between the merger and the management of Parcast, as well as Spotify (owner of the studio).

A three-year contract provides for a 2% salary increase each year after the contract is signed, a 12-hour break between work days, an annual diversity committee budget of $100,000, a change in health benefits during the contract, a minimum termination of 11 weeks. More senior staff time was added, new senior positions were added, and a four-week notice was added when shows were canceled or fundamentally changed. The agreement also includes a “career development language” that provides routine work reviews, opportunities for employees to meet with managers to set up new programs, tools to review job descriptions and feedback on job applications. Quarterly reports are also included on the management plans in terms of content and language of non-subcontracted personnel to carry out the contracted work. WGA East announced ratification results and contract details on Monday.

The union also won the diversity, equality and inclusion priorities demanded in the negotiations, which required that half of all job seekers who passed the initial telephone interview stage were underrepresented. According to the union, the objective of diversity must be achieved at the end of the contract.

According to the union, the contract will result in the payment of all employees, averaging 7.12% per person in the first year of the contract. The union adds that Parcast Union’s annual minimum wage will now be about $70,000 plus overtime, and that all the lowest-paid employees in the department have been promoted.

“It has been a long road from a 15-month negotiation to reaching this agreement. “We are delighted with the terms of our new union agreement, which we are all fighting for together,” the Parquet Transactions Committee said in a statement. “Our unit has shown remarkable solidarity, from the pledge to strike to the signing, and we are delighted that together we can move forward after our efforts.”

The vote closes the process that began in October 2020, when Parcast Union was voluntarily recognized by management and began work to reach a first agreement. “Negotiations have lasted 15 months, unionists have been gaining strength in recent months, which ended with the presentation of workers”pledge to strike“96% of union members signed the management. The likely deal was announced on the night of the last day of the agreement between the two parties.

WGA East CEO Lowell Peterson added in a statement: “More and more audiences are listening to well-crafted podcasts, and this agreement shows that collective bargaining works in this critical industry.”