Addressing healthcare misinformation

A rumor has been spreading that Peacock Productions, a group that successfully organized at NBC with the Writers Guild of America East, was stripped of their health benefits as a result of their negotiations with the company. This is inaccurate and intentionally misleading, meant to stoke fear and doubt. 

Peacock Productions is primarily made up of freelancers who are hired to work jobs of various lengths. Several years ago, they began to organize to win improvements in their benefits, which were limited. NBC filed legal challenges to delay their campaign for years, and eventually offered PEP insurance as a healthcare option before their union was certified. After the employees stood strong and won their election, they negotiated a contract which included a healthcare plan that was not employer based. Instead, their new plan was portable, allowing them to remain covered as they freelance across multiple companies.

These workers were not stripped of their benefits—they negotiated for and secured the benefits that made the most sense to their members.

Crossover is irreplaceable for many of us in News Digital. As full time staffers, we often depend on it, and have little need for a portable healthcare plan. The company cannot threaten to strip us of our benefits as a result of organizing, and it is disappointing that a small number of people have pushed this misleading narrative in order to influence our supermajority support.

With this union election, we have a chance to win a seat at the table—not for a third party—for us. We are the union, and we will be the ones developing a bargaining strategy, leading negotiations, drafting proposals, and remaining accountable to our peers. We have the opportunity to lock in the benefits we like and want to keep, and push for improvements where they are needed. And we have the votes to win. 

To NBC News Digital editorial staff,

As one of the producers who organized a union at NBC Peacock Productions, I want to offer you all the support and encouragement possible.  

I also want to offer facts to help you see through the smokescreen that is blowing at you. NBC tried to divide us with misinformation, threats, and delays—but we didn't fall for it. Instead, we voted for union representation, and then we negotiated a contract that secured our top priorities—including overtime pay, paid time off, and portable health benefits that make a huge difference to our largely-freelance workforce.

You may well have different needs, in which case you'll negotiate a different contract. "The union" is not some big bureaucracy there to impose its agenda on you. Once you vote for representation, the union is you. You'll set the priorities, you'll steer the negotiation, and you'll approve the final contract. The more you stick together, the better deal you'll win; and the gains you make will be guaranteed to you in a binding contract, not there to be dangled as bait and withdrawn at management's whim.  

Keep up the fight. You're building a better future for yourselves and your co-workers. Let us know how we can help and we'll be there.  

—David Van Taylor, Producer

Our purpose in organizing Peacock Productions was to get a seat at the bargaining table. As freelancers, we traditionally had no access to health insurance, so it was our highest priority. 

As a result of organizing, NBC implemented health insurance for freelance employees, and when we got a seat at the bargaining table we negotiated the type of insurance that made the most sense for our bargaining unit—portable insurance that we can take from one job to the next. Any indication on the part of NBC that this result was a sacrifice on the part of our bargaining unit is false. It was what we sought, and what we were able to accomplish by fighting to have our voices heard.

By creating your own bargaining unit, you will be seizing the power to negotiate for your own priorities. Don't assume that by not organizing, you'll maintain any of the benefits you currently enjoy. Without organizing into a group you will always be negotiating as individuals, at the mercy of whoever happens to be in charge. 

Together, you can ensure a continued voice in your own best interest.

—Jess Beck, Producer