Source: The Hill
CBSN, the digital arm of CBS News, has become the first major live-streaming news network to unionize, according to an announcement by the Writers Guild of America, East.
“The WGAE recognizes that the news business has become increasingly platform-agnostic,” WGAW Executive Director Lowell Peterson said in an announcement Wednesday.
“People watch and read news on television screens and computer screens and smartphone screens (and on radio). Our members are committed to creating compelling content for all of these screens, and our union is committed to representing people who do this work on all screens,” Peterson continued.
Peterson wrote that it was “vital” that people working in streaming services secure the same “equal workplace protections” as their peers in broadcast and digital media.
WGA East will now handle collective bargaining efforts of CBSN’s 55 writers, producers and graphic artists.
CBSN, based in New York as CBS News headquarters, launched in 2014 in becoming the first round-the-clock digital streaming news network.
WGA East has represented traditional CBS News members since the news organization was formed in 1954.
