Tina Fey, Amber Ruffin and Other NBCUniversal Stars Support MSNBC Union Drive

Tina Fey and Amber Ruffin are among the prominent NBCUniversal stars who have signed a petition urging MSNBC employees to support the unionization drive for writers and other editorial staffers at the all-news network.

The WGA East has led the organizing effort at MSNBC that will culminate with an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board. Ballots are to be mailed out today and are due back by Aug. 17.

The long list of 1,600 signatures on the petition include prominent film and TV writers and showrunners including Adam McKay, Michael Schur, Robert and Michelle King, Bill Condon, Neil Gaiman, Warren Leight, Al Jean and Cord Jefferson.

The petition urges the affected MSNBC employees to vote in favor of joining the WGA East.

“We work in scripted television and film, including many projects produced by NBC Universal. Through our union membership we have been able to negotiate fair compensation, excellent benefits, and basic fairness at work—all
of which are enshrined in our union contract. We are ready to support you in your effort to do the same. We’re all in this together,” the petition states.

The roughly 300 jobs that the WGA East hopes to cover at MSNBC include news writers as well as talent bookers, fact checkers as well as booking producers and planners. Those jobs have not been covered by union contracts at MSNBC over the 25 years since the cabler launched in 1996 as a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft.

The WGA East hopes to make inroads at MSNBC after historically being kept mostly out of NBCUniversal although it does represent writers at NBC News Studios, which produces unscripted programs for various outlets.

(Pictured: Amber Ruffin)

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