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Bandcamp’s entire union bargaining team, the eight union members democratically elected by their peers to negotiate their first union contract, were laid off when Epic Games sold Bandcamp to music licensing company Songtradr on Monday.
Songtradr told 404 Media that it did not have any union membership information when it made its decision on which employees it would keep as part of the sale, but the union told me Songtradr invited them to a meeting with Songtradr’s CEO last week. 404 Media has viewed the invitation, which shows Bandcamp’s bargaining team were invited and that Songtradr’s CEO Paul Wiltshire planned to attend. Songtradr told 404 Media that at that point it had already extended offers to all the Bandcamp employees it intended to hire.
“Songtradr had no access to union membership information and we executed our employment offer process with full-consideration of all legal requirements,” Jalila Singerff, director of communications at Songtradr, told 404 Media in an email. “We carried out a comprehensive, full company evaluation that involved a detailed examination of each role. This evaluation considered several factors such as product groups, job functions, employee tenure, performance evaluations, the importance of roles for smooth business operations, and whether a similar function already existed at Songtradr including our experience of running it and associated requirements.”
After this story was first published, Songtradr told 404 Media in an email that "US employees were extended based on the factors we previously described before we knew the composition of or met with any bargaining team members."