Chicago Radio: Staffers At Classical WFMT Plan To Unionize

Employees at Chicago’s classical music station, 98.7 WFMT, revealed plans this month to unionize with SAG-AFTRA, the union for broadcast media professionals. 

“The current environment has left many of us feeling undervalued, overworked, and voiceless,” the union committee stated through SAG-AFTRA. “We believe WFMT can flourish in the 21st century, but that requires empowering the people behind its programming. Joining SAG-AFTRA is about building a workplace where employees feel supported and appreciated.”

According to union committee sources speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the push to unionize began a year ago. Tensions surfaced publicly last fall when veteran host Dennis Moore claimed WFMT fired him rather than accommodating a medically approved disability. 

Dennis Moore

Moore also criticized the station’s parent company, Window to the World Communications Inc. (WWCI), for neglecting WFMT’s interests in favor of its PBS affiliate, WTTW. “It’s tough when management only sees the present—‘We’re doing it this way because it’s how we’ve always done it,’” Moore told the Tribune. “The current setup just isn’t working.”

The union committee proposed a bargaining unit of 20 “content creators”—full-time hosts and producers—with negotiations to determine if web production and WFMT Radio Network staff, who syndicate content to 350 stations across 50 countries, can join. WTTW already has SAG-AFTRA and IBEW bargaining units, though a WFMT spokesperson declined to specify how many WTTW employees are unionized. Representing WWCI, the spokesperson told the Tribune, “WFMT is committed to a fair and respectful process with employees seeking to unionize,” but offered no further comment on Moore’s case.

Dennis Moore, 69, joined WFMT in 1990 as a host and producer, later serving as program director from 1997 to 2004. He hosted weekend mornings before taking the weekday morning slot in 2018. Last spring, Moore took a three-month leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, during which he was diagnosed with shift work sleep disorder, common among night workers. His doctor recommended a start time no earlier than 8 a.m.