Unionized Workers at Nonfiction Production Company McGee Media Ratify First Contract

Unionized workers at the nonfiction production company behind PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. have greenlit a first union contract with their employer.

Producers, researchers and archivists at McGee Media who are unionized with the Writers Guild of America East have ratified a recent tentative agreement reached by negotiators, the union announced on Monday. The entire 25-member bargaining unit voted to ratify the contract on Thursday.

In a statement, members of the bargaining committee stated that the contract “sets a new standard for the documentary television industry and reflects the progressive values of McGee Media.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to McGee Media, which has also produced No Accident for HBO and Gospel for PBS, for comment.

The new contract establishes three percent annual wage increases for union members and healthcare contributions through the Entertainment Industry Flex Plan. The three-year deal also requires 10 vacation days and a minimum of three sick days after two weeks of employment (staffers who work on an annual basis will receive six days each year). According to the union, McGee Media is its first unionized nonfiction workplace to include paid parental leave in its contract.

Like many entertainment union contracts negotiated in the last two years, the deal includes language covering the use of AI in the workplace: It necessitates advanced notice and “discussion” if AI tools are put in place at the company. 10 days advance notice of “dark weeks” — time periods when at least part of the production takes a break — is required, and otherwise payment is incurred. The contract also includes a language offering “the right to disconnect.” In other words, during days off and on working days after 8 pm, staffers are not expected to reply to work messages unless advance notice is provided or the communications are labeled as urgent.

The McGee Media unionization is part of a renewed push by the East Coast-based writers’ union to further organize the reality television and documentary production space. In the last two years, the company has notched unions at Story Syndicate as well as McGee Media and begun union drives at A+E Factual Studios and RadicalMedia. In a statement, WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen said, “All nonfiction television workers deserve union protections.”