Floyd County Productions Guild
On the Clock is Motherboard's reporting on the organized labor movement, gig work, automation, and the future of work.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
The union believes with this new policy, management is illegally retaliating against workers for their union activity. Under the National Labor Relations Act, it is illegal for employers to retaliate against workers for engaging in union organizing or other concerted activity to improve their working conditions. Management denies the allegations. "[Floyd County Productions] does not prohibit employees from communicating about the Company on social media, unless it relates to confidential content or client communication," Thompson told Motherboard. "To put this in perspective, in the past, Floyd was a studio that actively encouraged employees to share shows they had worked on," Lindsay Meissner, a compositor at Floyd County Productions who worked on Archer, told Motherboard. "We had a culture of talking to fans about aired material but suddenly without warning, there was this NDA addendum floating around." Members of the Floyd County Productions Guild say management has instead pushed forward the idea of holding an National Labor Relations Board election. The union says it will only agree to the election if the company commits to ending its union busting campaign and discontinuing its work with Hawkins, Parnell & Young, the law firm which specializes in representing management in union organizing drives. The firm highlights "successfully defeat[ing] a union organizing campaign on behalf of an international airline manufacturer" on its website. "We would agree to an election if the company weren't engaging in anti union tactics and hiring union busting lawyers," said Balinger, the character designer. "But the company is not neutral. If they allowed people to vote on what they perceive is their best interest, we'd be happy to go that route."