Workers at Secretly Group, Secretly Distribution, Secretly Publishing, Numero Group and Ghostly International are forming a union. In a statement calling for the voluntary recognition of members and senior management of the Secretly Group, the Secretly Group Union set out its reasons for organizing with the International Union of Offices and Professionals (Local 174 of OPEIU ). “Our enthusiasm for the culture in which we work can lead to the exploitation of endemic ways of the creative industries: poor wages, inadequate profits, lack of work and living limits, maintenance that hinders professional development and the absence of initiatives addressing systemic careers and gender inequality “. Read the full statement below.
The Secretly Group includes the independent labels Secretly Canadian, Jagjaguwar and Dead Oceans. In an article by Kim Kelly for Rolling rock, the workers, who asked for anonymity out of concern for retaliation, spoke in depth about the problems facing the workplace. “Many of us had been trying to raise these issues and solve them individually, and they were not being listened to,” a member of the organizing committee said. “There was a time when you think, what are the alternatives here? What is our other option than to come together and defend ourselves collectively for ourselves and make sure we have the support and power to do so? “
In its mission statement, the union criticized the company for “performative alliance,” which they wrote “is not enough when the voices of our most vulnerable employees (people of color, women, and non-gendered staff) are they have marginalized more and more “.