New on the HRA Blog! Solidarity Across the Sector: StoryCorps Joins the Growing Number of Cultural Heritage Organizations to Unionize

StoryCorps is an American nonprofit founded in 2003 by David Isay with a mission to preserve and share the stories of people from all backgrounds. Modeled after the oral history projects conducted by the WPA in the 1930’s, the organization places recording booths and facilitators in accessible spaces to enable anyone to record their story. Among its numerous projects, StoryCorps has permanent recording booths in Chicago, NYC and Atlanta, a mobile booth that travels the U.S. in a retrofitted Airstream, and regular broadcasts on NPR. An archive of the organization’s recordings are housed at the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. StoryCorps has been the recipient of Peabody, Ted and MacArthur awards.

In October of 2019, employees of StoryCorps ratified their first contract as members of CWA Local 1180. The road up to that point was long, arduous and involved a significant amount of anti-union campaigning on the part of the employer. Maura Johnson is a member of the Community Training team at StoryCorps who has been with the organization for over five years. This interview was conducted by Claire Bennett via email in January 2020.

Read the interview in its entirety here.