Rally with Sesame Workers Union on our birthday!
Sesame Workers Union Birthday Party & Contract Rally
Tuesday, March 31st
12:30 - 1:30 pm
Dante Park - 63rd and Broadway, Manhattan
We, the workers at Sesame Workshop (the parent non-profit of the beloved television show Sesame Street) organized a union one year ago in a historic moment for Sesame Workshop and the children everywhere whom we help to grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Our union is formed out of a deep respect and devotion for this organization, our work, and our shared mission at Sesame.
Since June 2025, we have been negotiating our first contract with Sesame management and their attorney from Proskauer Rose. We don’t believe we are being respected or collaborated with, rather all we see is red ink and management’s desire to keep everything under their control. Now, in honor of our first birthday as a union, we are taking action!
We are rallying for:
Fair pay: The top 12 executives at Sesame make as much money as 79% of our unit combined currently. Our lowest salaries are around $56K. This is unacceptable. We want our members to be able to live on Sesame Street.
Job Security: Immediately after we went public with our union, Sesame management announced a layoff of over 100 of our colleagues, due to cuts in funding from our contract with HBO. We want protections and security that we can only get in a union contract.
Family-friendly benefits: Like many companies, Sesame wants to push us to return to the office more often. Other benefits, like matching our 401k benefit, have been taken away in the last year. We want a contract which guarantees us a quality of life and work-life balance which reflects the values which Sesame Street espouses.
Speakers include:
Sesame Workers Union members
Janella T. Hinds, Secretary-Treasurer of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Brad Holyman-Sigal, Manhattan Borough President
Dannel Jurado, organizer with Kickstarter United, OPEIU Local 153 Executive Board
We love our work, we just know it can be better. We are rallying to show this love and to share with the world what has been going on. We also want Sesame management to know that we won’t stop organizing until Sesame values are reflected in our union contract.
Can’t make it? Send a letter to Sesame management in support of our union.