Mailchimp cancels Pineapple Avenue Studios podcast after refusing to work with union producers

That is Sizzling Pod, The Verge’s e-newsletter about podcasting and the audio trade. Enroll right here for extra.

Mailchimp, one of many podcast trade’s best-known sponsors, lately reached out to Pineapple Avenue Studios about making a brand new present. Pineapple and Mailchimp first collaborated in 2019, producing narrative adverts for Mailchimp and branded collection. So given their longstanding relationship, Pineapple Avenue workers have been shocked when administration at their dad or mum firm, the radio big Audacy, knowledgeable them at a gathering on October third that the brand new Mailchimp contract required all work on the collection to be carried out by non-union staff.

Lots of the producers who labored on Mailchimp tasks previously, or would tackle a brand new branded collection, have been within the union. In accordance with staffers current on the assembly, administration gave them an ultimatum: signal a facet settlement permitting the corporate to rent non-union contractors, or Mailchimp walks not solely from the brand new collection, however from the adverts and present present as nicely. Two days later at a follow-up assembly, Audacy reiterated that with out the settlement, it will lose Mailchimp as a consumer. However making a path across the union would defeat the purpose of organizing within the first place. The union refused to signal, and Mailchimp pulled its enterprise.

Audacy declined to touch upon the assembly or contract negotiations. When Sizzling Pod reached out to Mailchimp, firm spokesperson Christina Scavone stated there have been quite a lot of components contributing to the cancellation. She didn’t deny that the disagreement over union labor was considered one of them.

It’s a shocking flip of occasions contemplating their historical past — however loyalty apart, Mailchimp, Pineapple Avenue, and the entire trade have modified

“We’ve labored with Pineapple Avenue Media over the previous few years and all the time valued its contributions; nevertheless, for numerous enterprise and artistic causes, we determined to not transfer ahead with this present,” Scavone stated in an announcement. “Intuit Mailchimp has and continues to proudly work with unions throughout totally different areas of our enterprise, and we’re consistently evaluating alternatives to provide nice content material.”

It’s a shocking flip of occasions contemplating Mailchimp and Pineapple Avenue’s historical past. However loyalty apart, Mailchimp, Pineapple Avenue, and the entire trade have modified. Each firms so related to the podcast growth have been snatched up by bigger companies when instances have been good — Pineapple Avenue by Audacy in 2019 and Mailchimp by monetary software program firm Intuit in 2021. The audio trade, as soon as flush with cash, began contracting in 2022, leaving Audacy in a precarious monetary place. Following the lead of staff at studios like Gimlet and iHeartMedia Podcasts, Pineapple Avenue workers unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East final fall, claiming pay cuts and insufficient wages underneath Audacy’s administration. (Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial workers can be unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.)

In a letter despatched to Intuit and Mailchimp on Monday, the union claimed that the choice to cancel their partnership over the labor dispute seems to be “unethical and unlawful.” “As we’re certain you’re conscious, the Nationwide Labor Relations Act protects union actions and prevents employers from discriminating in opposition to staff or job candidates based mostly on union standing or sympathies,” the letter says.

Nonetheless, Mailchimp is a consumer, not an employer. Scott Witlin, a companion at Barnes and Thornburg who focuses on labor regulation within the leisure trade, says that Mailchimp is inside their rights to make such a requirement. “An organization can terminate a contract with one other firm as a result of that subcontractor’s staff have unionized, and it’s not a violation of the regulation,” Witlin stated. 

As for the “why,” Scavone declined to touch upon Mailchimp’s demand. However Witlin stated that when firms take such a stance, it’s as a result of they don’t wish to get caught up in one other firm’s union struggle. “Persons are afraid that there shall be a strike or a lockout or another disruption for the work and so they don’t wish to have that occur with their merchandise,” he stated.

Within the yr since forming the union, Pineapple Avenue staffers have but to stage any form of work stoppage. Producer Emerald O’Brien, who labored on Going By way of It, a Mailchimp branded present that wrapped its fourth season in July, stated the union by no means got here up as a difficulty previous to the assembly with administration.

“At no level did Intuit Mailchimp specific any points with that,” O’Brien stated. “I don’t know what they assume goes to occur utilizing union labor.”

Audacy’s lawyer instructed staffers that, with out the facet settlement, “there shall be downstream penalties, similar to operational reductions.” Staffers understood this to imply layoffs

With Mailchimp out of the image, the argument between Audacy and Pineapple Avenue’s union will not be executed. Staff current on the October assembly with administration say that Audacy lawyer Ron Allen instructed staffers that if the union didn’t comply with the facet settlement — which might have utilized to any consumer that demanded non-union labor, not simply Mailchimp — that “there shall be downstream penalties, similar to operational reductions.” Staffers understood this to imply layoffs.

On Thursday, the union filed a cost with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board on Thursday alleging that Audacy “negotiated in dangerous religion bargaining in negotiation periods … by participating in threatening ways and floor bargaining.” Audacy declined to touch upon the labor cost.

As for Mailchimp’s involvement in future podcasting tasks, the corporate’s choices could also be restricted as union outlets change into the norm. The trade contraction has resulted in additional studios unionizing as staff search higher protections in opposition to layoffs or, not less than, a greater severance package deal within the occasion layoffs occur anyway. Crooked Media unionized with the WGAE in February, as did Pushkin Industries final month.

“Mailchimp has been an important Twenty first-century patron of the humanities,” stated Pineapple Avenue producer Sophie Bridges. “It could be vastly disappointing for that to cease being the case.”