WGAE Negotiates Collective Bargaining Agreement with Sharp Entertainment

NEW YORK, NY (MAY 1, 2014) – The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) announced it has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with Sharp Entertainment, LLC, one of the largest nonfiction television production companies in New York. 

In February, the National Labor Relations Board certified the WGAE as the collective bargaining representative of Sharp’s Producers, Field Producers, Story Producers, Re-Creation Producers, Coordinating Producers, Associate Producers, Field Associate Producers, Story Associate Producers, Office Associate Producers, Post Associate Producers and Writers.

“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Sharp that includes the provisions we have won for writer-producers employed by other nonfiction TV production companies – compensation minimums, paid time off, union security, grievance and arbitration, and (perhaps most importantly) employer-provided health benefits,” said Lowell Peterson, executive director of Writers Guild of America, East.

Sharp produces shows for cable television such as Doomsday Preppers, Man vs. Food, and Bad Ink.  There are currently about 70 bargaining unit employees; in the course of a year the company employs approximately 150 writer-producers who are now represented by the WGAE.