Crooked Media Staff Unionize With Writers Guild East

Crooked Media employees, the progressive media company behind Pod Save America are seeking unionization with the Writers Guild of America East. The guild stated Monday that an 'overwhelming majority" of them have contacted the guild. The 55 Crooked Media workers who are writers, editors, designers, engineers, and producers make up the bargaining unit. As the union letter stated, some of these 'degradations' have led to high turnover and low morale within the media company. "In short, we want Crooked to become the fair workplace it claims to be." Crooked Media spokeswoman said that the company would work with the union to recognize it and start the collective bargaining process. The spokesperson said that Crooked Media has supported organized labor's power and welcomed the efforts of its employees to unionize. Crooked Media was established in 2017 by ex-Obama staffers Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett. Crooked Media employees are joining WGA East in unionizing. They follow similar unionization efforts by podcasting shops such as Spotify's Gimlet Media and Parcast, The Ringer, and the iHeart Podcast Network.