Why do The Young Turks Hate Unions?

For many on the left, The Young Turks is mandatory viewing. The YouTube show has become a loud voice in support of progressive politics and progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders.

With the channel growing, the professional staff behind the scenes began organizing with IATSE. Last week the staff went public with their organizing effort. Since The Young Turks is a pretty progressive show, the staff felt that the bosses would automatically recognize the union. The refusal comes after Sanders proposed penalizing companies that refuse to recognize unions.

In response to the boss’s refusal to recognize their union, the TYTUnion tweeted the following:

"This is a disappointing decision from an organization that presents itself as progressive," the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the parent organization of TYT Union, tweeted. "Join us in telling [The Young Turks] to respect their so-called principles and respect their workers!"

In a statement from the company, The Young Turks said that while they won’t recognize the union through card check, they are asking for an expedited arbitrator supervised election. They then went on to attack the union claiming that IATSE was “actively campaigning against the founder of the company in his political race, but also has clearly acted in bad faith.” They went on to accuse the union of not having enough support and attempting to intimidate management.

This type of behavior from a supposedly progressive media outlet is right out of the union-busting playbook. They are accusing the union of bullying and lying to the staff, something that Wal-Mart bosses would do.

Sadly, The Young Turks actions aren’t that rare within the progressive media. In September, the Center for American Progress was accused of union-busting after they fired their entire union staff at Think Progress and replaced them with non-union workers.