Why We’re Organizing
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The Ringer is proud to announce that we have formed a union with WGA East and are standing with the thousands of other digital professionals in the media, podcasting, and video worlds who have recently organized.
The Ringer is a vibrant, collaborative workplace that values its employees and encourages them to take creative risks and pursue their passions, and even though we are spread across the country, we still feel like a close-knit team. This community is one of the reasons we love working here, and also why we’re devoted to advocating for each other and making sure we all have a voice in the decisions that matter.
By unionizing, we hope to strengthen our already amazing workplace culture and ensure that everyone who works at The Ringer, from video to editorial, from senior staffers to entry-level hires, receives necessary support, protection, and fair compensation. Here are some of the issues we’re discussing:
Compensation: We want everyone at The Ringer to earn a living wage and receive fair overtime pay. We hope to define clear salary minimums for each position, close any race- or gender-based gaps that may exist, and establish a consistent performance review and raise system.
Benefits: We also want to clarify, standardize, and strengthen benefits, including parental leave, sick leave, disability leave, and the creation of 401ks.
Diversity: We feel strongly that the best content is created by a diverse staff and want to create standards to ensure The Ringer hires and promotes people from underrepresented communities.
Severance: We work in a volatile industry and want to have long futures at The Ringer. We seek a severance policy with a guaranteed minimum that scales up in accordance with time served at the company.
Transparency: Maintaining open communication between employees and management is crucial to fostering a healthy workplace. This includes clear, accurate job descriptions and titles, responsibilities, and an org chart.
Creator rights: We are proud of the work we do at The Ringer. Creatives on staff should have more control over their intellectual property, receive revenue sharing when applicable, be allowed to contribute elsewhere, and be properly credited for their multimedia work.
We look forward to discussing these and other issues with the same collaborative, forward-looking spirit that drives our work every day. Together with management, we hope to establish a strong foundation for both the present and future of The Ringer—one that empowers employees and enables them to continue to create the best possible work.