MPR’s Current, Classical To Unionize

• Content creators at Minnesota Public Radio Triple A KCMP (The Current) and KSJN (Classical MPR)/Minneapolis-St. Paul have voted to recognize SAG-AFTRA as their union. The election was conducted by mail ballot, and the National Labor Relations Board counted the votes Tuesday afternoon.

“On behalf of SAG-AFTRA’s members, I want to congratulate The Current and Classical MPR’s talented content creators and welcome them to our SAG-AFTRA family,” said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. “This is an important victory for public media professionals, and we look forward to standing with them and supporting them as they negotiate fair contracts.”

The two new bargaining units will include the public media pros who create content for all areas of the stations, including on-air hosts, producers, and all the people that make content for The Current and Classical MPR, including Classical 24 and Performance Today. These victories allow the two new bargaining units to move forward to negotiate their first contracts. “This is a historic moment for The Current,” said Current host Andrea Swensson. “For the first time in our station’s history, employees have won the legal right to collectively bargain for ourselves in the workplace. Standing arm and arm in solidarity, we are eager to advance our shared goals of transparency, fairness, integrity and inclusivity.”

The Current and Classical MPR votes represent the latest in a series of organizing victories for public media pros with SAG-AFTRA. In recent years, employees at KCRW/Santa Monica, KPCC/Pasadena, KPBS/San Diego, WBEZ/Chicago, KUOW/Seattle, MPR News/Minnesota, WBUR/Boston, WHYY/Philadelphia, WBGO/Newark, WAMU/Washington, DC and digital and per-diem employees at New York Public Radio have all unionized with SAG-AFTRA, which also represents public media professionals at National Public Radio and several other public radio and television stations.