The Writers Guild of America East is backing another organizing drive targeting a nonfiction production company.
The union has partnered with workers at the Stamford, Conn.-based Lucky 8 in an effort to unionize the company. Though the WGA East did not respond to questions about the number of workers and which roles it is targeting, the union claimed in an announcement on Tuesday that an “overwhelming majority” of this group has signed union cards, signaling their support for the effort. The WGA East has asked Lucky 8 management for voluntary recognition.
With productions that have aired on Investigation Discovery, MTV and Discovery+, Lucky 8 has most recently worked on Netflix’s Unlocked: A Jail Experiment (2024) and National Geographic’s Extraordinary Birder With Christian Cooper (2023). The company is also involved in the established series 60 Days In on A&E Network and The History Channel’s The Food That Built America.
The workers involved in the organizing drive explained in a letter on Tuesday that they have a “shared vision for a brighter future” at Lucky 8 and for nonfiction producers at large. The group emphasized that, with this drive, it aims to bargain over wages, working conditions, benefits, job security concerns, community and professional development opportunities.
“We see our decision to unionize as an affirmative step toward strengthening our existing relationship with members of management in cooperative and mutually beneficial ways,” the group wrote. “It is also an opportunity for us to work together more effectively, ensuring a prosperous future for our team and Lucky 8 as a whole.”
The Writers Guild East, which has been organizing nonfiction shops for over a decade, has recently stepped up its efforts with successful drives at Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. producer McGee Media and Summer of Soul producer RadicalMedia. In September the union additionally launched an organizing push at A+E Factual Studios, behind Dance Moms: A New Era and The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
In a statement, WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen emphasized that the workers at Lucky 8 Productions are part of a larger movement. “Nonfiction television and film workers are building power industrywide by fighting for critical union protections,” she said. “Workers at Lucky 8 have made their voices heard, now it is incumbent on management to respect their choices by recognizing the Lucky 8 Union without delay.”
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