One week after their previous contract expired, union members at The Ringer and Spotify Studios – formerly Gimlet Media and Parcast – have both reached tentative agreements with Spotify on new collective bargaining agreements. The tentative deals, reached after more than two months of bargaining, call for pay increases that average 5.7%, which union staffers point out is higher than the rate of inflation. It says they also made gains on severance, won new protections for employees who are on visas, and secured “groundbreaking” safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence.
In a statement, the Spotify Studios Union credited the “solidarity and strength” of the union, saying to win the gains, 100% of Gimlet Union and Parcast Union employees signed a strike pledge and were “prepared to walk” if no agreement could be reached with Spotify.
“Our joint unit went into these negotiations battered by brutal rounds of layoffs. So many of our talented colleagues were cast aside in a restructuring that was only necessary because of decisions made by Spotify leadership. Still, during negotiations, Spotify Studios Union members came together and found a unified voice to defend our rights as workers,” it said in the statement.
The staff, which is organized under the Writers Guild of America-East, said earlier that the cost of its proposed pay hikes to Spotify would total $173,784.60.
The Ringer Union bargaining committee says its agreement also includes necessary wage increases for lower-paid members of its bargaining unit, severance, and additional layoff protections.
“We could not have won this hard-fought contract without the solidarity of our members and our fellow WGAE shop unions at Gimlet and Parcast,” The Ringer team says, adding, “Our union remains united in the face of industry changes, and we look forward to continuing to build solidarity through the life of this contract.”
The tentative agreements will now go to the Spotify Studios Union, The Ringer Union and the WGAE Council for ratification votes.
The contract also marks a new chapter for employees. Beginning with the ratification of this agreement, the Gimlet and Parcast Unions are joining together to become The Spotify Studios Union.
Spotify has had significant staffing changes during the past year as part of an overhaul of its expenses. It laid-off 17% of its employees, or about 1,500 people, during Q4 which resulted in about $154 million in severance payouts. It was the third round of layoffs at Spotify last year, having earlier terminated six percent of its staff, or about 600 employees in January, and then following that up by cutting another two percent, or about 200 people, last June as part of a “strategic realignment” of its podcast business.
CEO Daniel Ek has said the leaner structure will return Spotify to how it operated in its early days as a startup with limited resources and a reliance on ingenuity and creativity to grow.