Credit: The Ringer Union
The RingerBy Jay Rigdon on

It’s been a busy summer for the Ringer Union.

Most of their publicly visible efforts have been focused on improving diversity within the company, a need highlighted when Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo were the  voices out front for a discussion on George Floyd, for example. Or when Simmons memorably slapped down a question on why podcast hosts skewed white with “This isn’t open mic night.”

Now, amidst an incredibly hectic period on the warped 2020 sports calendar, Ringer staffers coordinated a social media campaign to highlight goals the union is attempting to achieve for its members. It’s a platform that features guarantees that should be a given, but digital media has long been the realm of exploited labor.

https://twitter.com/micahpeters_/status/1313649100445769729

There were many, many more, as you’d expect. (The union’s Twitter shared a lot of them, if you want the full collection.)

Again, none of those three bullet points should feel anything close to revolutionary. In just about every corporate job (and after the $250 million in Spotify money, that’s exactly what The Ringer is) these are basic elements of being an employee. (Anyone who ever had to spend a few hours at their cubicle desk filling out the annual goals and self-assessment modules that no one was ever going to read in order to get a 2% raise knows this.)

Whether this kind of coordinated campaign can really help put pressure on management isn’t clear, but it was certainly highly visible on social media last night, during a big night for sports. Bringing attention to the cause (and to the specific, very reasonable central demands of said cause) feels like a low-risk move.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.

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