"No, I Am Definitely Not A Union-Buster" Says Guy Who Is Definitely A Union-Buster
Cenk Uygur is definitely a union-buster, but not if you ask him. Here's the evidence, a call for anger and why lying is preferable to accountability.
Navigate to these sections:
The Video
INTRO: Is Cenk Uygur A Union-Buster?
The 4 Articles
TYT Workers
NLRB Cases
Cenk’s Emails
Former TYT Employees Dan & Emma
IATSE & Prominent Union Officials
CONCLUSION: Truth, Lies & Accountability
The Video
Quack quack.
In a remarkable moment sure to make the final version of “Tell The Truth, Cenk,” a documentary about the battle for workplace dignity at the Home of Progressives, Cenk Uygur, host, founder and CEO of The Young Turks, vehemently denied being a union-buster when confronted on a rare call-in show in October 2024.
“Are you a union-buster!?”
“No, I am definitely not a union-buster,” Cenk answers.
“There’s evidence that proves otherwise, though.”
"Pfft! What evidence!?" Cenk scoffs before panic-fleeing the call.
He then conducts a masterclass in gaslighting, insisting he can’t be a union-buster because TYT has a union (TYT Union comprises ~ 15 people, less than 25% of the company’s workforce), asserts that anger is the correct response if it were true and explains away the charge as yet another falsehood from the Internet, something he’s dealt with a million times and has gotten used to.
“What are you gonna do? Fuggin’ internet!” he shrugs.
Watch the exchange. It’s about 2 minutes.
Credit to caller Hanzi83 for getting Cenk on the record.
note:
This will be the first of a few updates I haven’t had time to work on related to The Project.
Now that TellTheTruthCenk.com is live — I made it myself! Please check it out! Early donations paid for hosting! — I’m able to shift my attention to other items as I prep for a PR tour to promote the film and fundraiser. Funds are always needed so please consider supporting. This is a group project & your help is vital to the film’s success.
Gofundme and other donation links here
This is an enormous lift and I always feel hopelessly behind. I struggle daily to manage energy levels and keep the tigers in my head caged enough to make progress. I’ve learned there’s a reason documentaries are made in groups, not by one exhausted dude.
Thank you for bearing with me,
-Hank
Here’s my video breaking it down and reacting. It’s long but the first ten minutes will do just fine.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe.
Is Cenk Uygur A Union-Buster?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Definitely.
Cenk Uygur is 100% without-a-shred-of-doubt a union-buster, exactly as I am a fisherman.
Just because I suck at fish-catching doesn’t change my intention to bust a bluegill when I try. Failure to land one doesn’t mean I didn’t hope to and I’d be looked askance by land-lubbers if I returned to shore, pole in hand, sunburnt knees, floppy hat adorned in unbitten tackle, bluegill bucket dry, claiming I wasn’t a fisherman, particularly if I had hired anti-fish law firms to help me and the government noticed how much fish-busting I was attempting that it made me hang a sign retracting my fish-busting policies and informing fish of their right to school-organize under the National Fish Relations Act.
Arsonists know what I’m talking about.
In the intention, trying to set a building on fire is the same as burning one down. By Cenk’s logic, however, a standing building proves the arsonist never tried.
But that’s just for unions.
On other matters, Cenk’s view differs. Here he harkens to his conservative foundation, insisting there’s no difference between attempted and achieved.
Murderers and attempted murderers are the same, he declares:
“I’ve told you guys a million times I’m conservative legally. One of the things that means is I don’t understand the difference between attempted murder and murder.”
This logic doesn’t seem to apply to his union-busting, however. Another noteworthy suspension of a professed principle.
How conservative.
To Be Unreasonably Fair
If we’re to be absurdly generous, one could argue Cenk believes that…
… rejecting card check, a captive audience meeting (that included throwing papers & threats), withholding raises & bonuses, publicly smearing unionizing workers with false claims his political foes started the union to harm his run for Congress, interrogating employees in one-on-one meetings about union activity, using back-channels to pressure contributors to not speak about it, hiring anti-union Management-side law firms, challenging the composition of the bargaining unit, firing a unionizing worker, appeals to “family,” coercive emails pleading to not unionize by insisting a union would endanger the company and would require throwing other workers overboard and insisting on a 2nd election on terms more favorable to the company…
… doesn’t constitute union-busting and therefore it’s technically his opinion that he isn’t a union-buster.
Maybe to him this is just more of that ‘I’m a great boss’ behavior he insists is true, as here in this clip from Cenk’s appearance on The Bitchuation Room podcast w/ Francesca Fiorentini, whom he later banned from his network in 26-minute video:
Could ignorance be this abject? Could a Wharton Business School graduate, a Columbia Law graduate, a former candidate for President, a Delaware Corporation owner, a movement leader, an author and a political mastermind be so uninformed? So unaware? Is he delusional?
Or is there some reality he’s hoping to hide? Some story he’s afraid you’ll learn? Is there accountability he’s desperate to dodge?
Cenk isn’t dumb and he isn’t delusional. He’s hiding something.
He’s lying.
He lied when said, “No, I am definitely not a union-buster,” and he lied when said, “Pfft! What evidence!?”
Those were lies.
Tell the truth, Cenk.
START WITH THESE 4 ARTICLES
These form an excellent foundation for the union-busting. Cenk is interviewed in three of them and hasn’t refuted a single detail.
February 24, 2020 — Huffington Post article by Dave Jamieson
The Young Turks' Progressive Founder Urged His Staff Not To UnionizeMarch 5, 2020 — In These Times article by Hamilton Nolan
The Young Turks Union Fight Gets Nastier With Charges of Retaliatory Firing, Withholding RaisesMarch 5, 2020 — The New Republic article by Kim Kelly
The Myth of the Progressive BossApril 10, 2020 — Politico article by Alex Thompson
Inside the union campaign that roiled left-wing network The Young Turks
These are featured in “Tell The Truth, Cenk” in a sequence emphasizing the workers’ fear of retaliation. Every worker who spoke to a reporter did so anonymously out of an understanding Management would impose consequences for doing so. It was vital they kept their identities from him. They were rightfully afraid of their boss and the punishment he might enact on top of the material & psychological harm he was already imposing via his union-busting.
Because I’d been laid off a month before the union came forward, I was less concerned so my name is in The New Republic article.
If it walks like a union-buster…
TYT UNION WORKERS’ VOICES
TYT Union’s twitter offers a thorough accounting of what happened.
They fought for their rights and, facing public ridicule and criticism spurred by Cenk and Ana willfully spreading the provably false narrative that outsiders started TYT Union to harm Cenk’s run for Congress, their integrity. They did so while still doing their jobs under the pressure-cooker of active union-busting.
Unlike TYT’s public figures, there was no incentive to deceive. They just wanted slightly better working conditions and to not be publicly smeared for exercising their right to collective bargaining.
They deserve to be heard, respected and honored as the primary source they are. This narrative, their narrative, has so far been kept hidden from TYT’s audience and will remain so until Cenk and/or Ana publicly acknowledge the version they told wasn’t true and that they haven’t been honest about what happened.
Tell the truth, Cenk and/or Ana.
CHOICE EXCERPTS
These are just key samplings from TYT Union Twitter profile.
Have a look yourself: scroll all the way back to February 2020 and then back up through April of 2020. It’s an interesting document of the stages a union goes through as it navigates a sustained union-busting campaign. Very interesting. (I’m close to finishing a video/mini-doc of exactly this, will link when ready)
- February 21, 2020 — TYT Union is dismayed that Cenk refused voluntary recognition by rejecting results of first election using card check, as explained by Bernie Sanders.
- February 25, 2020 — Workers demand TYT end its union-busting and respect the choice they made in the first election.
- March 9, 2020 — Workers demand Cenk release raises & bonuses to unionizing workers.
The left item is a screengrab of Hamilton Nolan’s In These Times article. (see the NLRB section below for more on the item on the right)
For your convenience, here’s a clearer view of the article snippet.
🟡 — The bright yellow highlight shows that, unlike workers in TYT Union, non-unionizing workers received their raises and bonuses. In case it’s not clear, Cenk targeted unionizing workers for retaliation because he was conducting a union-busting campaign. It’s a well-known tactic.
🟢 — In the green highlight, Cenk positions himself as the victim, telling Hamilton, “Frankly, we can’t win, because we all know that if we gave the raises, IATSE would be accusing us of bribing employees not to support the union.” This is simply absurd. Truly a kind of bullshit anyone who respected their audience wouldn’t be capable of thinking, let alone uttering to a journalist. Bribery?!
❔ — The final highlight (tan? faded yellow?) is yet more self-absolving nonsense from Cenk, suggesting IATSE is somehow impeding the workers from receiving the pay HE was withholding. It was HIS decision to withhold just as it was when HE finally relented weeks later, as is detailed below in the NLRB section.
- March 9, 2020 — TYT Union's Action Network Petition demanding an end to Cenk's "senseless union-busting campaign" goes live.
The Action Network Petition lists three prominent union-busting tactics and includes the phrases “age-old union-busting tactics” and “senseless union-busting campaign!”
The support message for those who signed the petition similarly describes the union-busting as union-busting and states that the “home of progressives” shouldn’t be a place for the busting of unions.
- March 28, 2020 — Continuing their plea to their boss to honor their right to collective bargaining, TYT Union is “disheartened that Cenk is fighting recognition.”
When the 2nd election on April 9th, 2020 affirmed TYT Union’s first election (the one Cenk refused to voluntarily recognize), TYT Union and Cenk both posted about the results.
Cenk’s is full of deceit: It wasn’t the first election, it wasn’t voluntary recognition and it wasn’t immediate.
As the workers made clear, voting again was a reaffirmation of their first election — they decided two months prior using card check — and used an honest phrase: officially recognized.
If it talks like a union-buster…
NLRB CASES & ANTI-WORKER LAW FIRMS
Two NLRB cases were generated between February 12th and April 9th of 2020.
Case #1: nlrb.gov/case/31-CA-257501
Case #2: nlrb.gov/case/31-CA-257503
NLRB Case #1
CHARGE AGAINST EMPLOYER, dated 3/5/2020 in the signature section at the bottom — “withholding predetermined wage increases and bonuses”
A closer look at the basis of the charge:
Within the six months immediately preceding the filing of this charge, the above-named employer, by and through its agents, violated 8(a)(1) of the Act by withholding predetermined wage increases and bonuses in response to a Union’s demand for voluntary recognition.
By the above, and other acts, the above named employer has interfered with, restrained, and coerced employees in the exercise of their rights guaranteed them by Section 7 of the Act.
- On March 13th, TYT Union announced their boss finally agreed to release the raises and bonuses he’d withheld from the unionizing workers.
Their money would no longer be held hostage by Cenk Uygur.
Note the 🟡 highlight: “5 weeks overdue” — this means the wages and bonuses were withheld soon after the union came forward on Feb 12th. It was one of the first union-busting tactics deployed.
They were denied their own money for over a month and Cenk only relented after the Government got involved.
NLRB Case #2
NLRB NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES
This was posted on the wall at The Young Turks for 60 days in 2022 as part of a settlement agreement following Cenk’s violation of Section 7 of the NLRA.
For a guy who is “definitely not a union-buster,” it sure is odd that the government told him to stop union-busting.
The only reason you’re seeing this is because they’re required to send a copy to former employees, which is why I received one.
Watch the 4-minute clip from “Tell The Truth, Cenk” about this here:
Pretty good editing, eh? (Please support completion of the film)
To my knowledge, no one at TYT reported on this despite its prominent display in their workplace. Union stories at other companies were covered during these 60 days however Cenk Uygur’s violation of labor law and union-busting was not deemed newsworthy enough to warrant coverage.
Anyone reading this article knows far more about what happened than The Young Turks audience and that’s a shame.
Here’s the CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE showing The Young Turks complied with the government orders:
It was placed on the “wall facing kitchette and water cooler” on March 3rd, 2022.
Third page, not very exciting:
Anti-Worker Management Side Law Firms
As revealed by the NLRB cases and shown in “Tell The Truth, Cenk” (here and here), The Young Turks employs law and consultancy firms that specialize in “Union Awareness Training and Prevention” and “union avoidance.”
*note: The NLRB website for the one on the left in the above screenshot now shows a different name for the law firm. The lawyer names are the same. Guessing either they changed firms or the firm changed names.
Considering the principles Cenk Uygur sells his audience and the fact that the company has received considerable financial support from its audience over the years, it stands to reason that the audience deserves to know how much of their money Cenk sends to anti-worker law firms.
Such disclosure would be in accordance with his insistence of being open, transparent and honest.
During my years as a paying member of TYT starting in 2008 (2009?), I would have wanted to know if my contribution to a Progressive media enterprise was spent on law firms that specialize in anti-worker and anti-progressive practices.
If it emails like a union-buster…
UNION-BUSTING EMAILS FROM CENK
Before the 2nd election on April 9th, 2020, Cenk Uygur emailed unionizing workers pleading with them to not unionize.
Described as “two 1,500-word-plus screeds” in Alex Thompson’s Politico article, the emails are a case study in classic anti-union arguments.
Find them here on Alex’s Twitter.
I have written about these in a prior post, examining the falsehoods such as the claim that “no one ever raised a single issue” (I raised the issue w/ working full-time for zero benefits) and that management didn’t deprive their employees of the basics (being deprived of the basics is exactly why we unionized) and the various suggestions Cenk makes that outsiders manipulated us when in fact the drive was worker-initiated, worker-led and began 18 months before Cenk became a politician.
Though Cenk would have you believe otherwise, workers invited IATSE’s help on two separate occasions. Like so many workers of now and yore, we needed help checking our boss’s behavior.
One item highlighted in “Tell The Truth, Cenk” is Cenk whining about his reputation taking a hit, playing his well-worn victim card by suggesting that harming him was the workers’ intention.
He frets he’ll be perceived as “a boss who treats his workers poorly.”
Not treating workers poorly is a method he could have tried to avoid the charge.
“One of the top concerns I have is that having a union will cost us too much money — and that will not only endanger the company but also leave less for all of us.”
Telling your workers before a union vote that a union will “endanger the company” and “leave less for all of us” is union-busting.
“So, let me give you an example of what could happen. If in a certain division, you had a $300,000 budget for the year hypothetically (and this really is a hypothetical, not some sort of veiled story). You can hire 6 people at $50,000 or if they negotiate better pay you can hire only 5 people at $60,000. But there is a no magic that creates more money by having a union, especially at a company that does not yet make a profit.
Basically in that hypothetical you’re making a decision on whether you’d like to make more money by throwing someone overboard.”
Telling your workers before a union vote that a union will take resources/jobs from other workers is union-busting.
“Speaking of which, unions can’t save jobs but they can fight for certain people in the company — that typically means people with seniority. Unions almost always prioritize on the basis of seniority. That means the junior folks are by definition a lower priority for them.”
Telling your workers before a union vote that unions prioritize some workers over others is union-busting.
None of these turned out to be true, it’s worth noting. That’s another thing about union-busting tactics: they’re deceptive, if not outright lies.
These emails belong in union education curriculum.
Honorable Mention: We’re A Family
“But maybe I am Michael Scott and I thought we were friends and family but you never saw it that way.”
Language of ‘family’ was very common around the office at The Young Turks and its presence in coercive union-busting emails should surprise no one. It’s widely regarded as a red flag indicating workplace toxicity. It’s paternalizing bullshit.
As a union-busting tactic, it’s emotional manipulation intended obscure power relations, provoke guilt and convey that a “3rd party” will be disruptive to the happy little family so it’s just best to not involve a pesky union. You wouldn’t want to hurt your family, would you?
Ring of Fire, hosted by former TYT Network contributors, Mike Papantonio, and Farron Cousins discussed the ‘family’ tactic on June 21, 2022 and again on July 9, 2023 in their coverage of union-busters and the union avoidance industry.
“So it’s that almost guilting you into thinking, ‘well, I can’t go against my family here’ and so they’re psychologically manipulating these people. And they do, they hire these psychologists to help them craft the language and learn how to manipulate these people. It’s truly disturbing”
I didn’t feel much like family when I was laid-off on January 7, 2020, a month before the union I’d been organizing came forward. I was tapped on the shoulder at 11:15am, brought to a meeting and told I had to be out by noon. An NDA in exchange for severance was offered.
TYT’s NDA includes a provision stating acknowledging the existence of the NDA to anyone but a lawyer, accountant or spouse (as long as they pledge to keep it secret) would violate the NDA. It was a contractual obligation to lie.
You know, like family!
If it coerces like a duck…
FORMER TYT EMPLOYEES DAN & EMMA
This footage is also destined for the film.
Longtime employees Dan From The Internet and Emma Vigeland have spoken publicly about their experience encountering the coercive leverage of TYT Management during its union-busting campaign.
Both expressed that this behavior influenced their decision to leave the company.
Dan From The Internet
On December 16, 2024, Dan spoke about being called into a one-on-one meeting and being asked about union activity
DAN: “I hear about the union things. I was brought into a meeting because I was suspected of organizing or being a part of organizing it … After producing a show, I was called into a meeting by someone higher up in the network and I was asked if I had heard about these things.”
One-on-one meetings with suspected organizers is an intimidation tactic, yet another well-know union-busting tactic, as explained on LaborLab
For the record, because Dan was a producer, he was uninvolved in any organizing because producers can’t be represented by IATSE, which represents production and post-production workers only. At TYT, this meant video editors, graphics and studio techs.
The rest of TYT staff should definitely unionize, though. Hint hint.
Emma Vigeland
Co-host of The Majority Report with Sam Seder, Emma Vigeland, was a longtime Young Turks contributor.
On March 28, 2025 she revealed that someone higher up at TYT contacted her and asked her not to speak publicly about the union situation.
EMMA: “Honestly, I think you can also see it reflected in the way you treat your employees, right? Like with the efforts to bust the union…”
SAM: “Oh my god! The union-busting was so gross!”
EMMA: “It was. And even at the time I received a call from somebody high up in the network asking me not to speak publicly about it.”
It’s very striking that Emma, as well as former TYT Multi-channel network (MCN) partner, Mike Figueredo of the Humanist Report have expressed more contrition (Emma, Mike) for their very, very minor roles in TYT’s union-busting than anyone from within the TYT inner circle.
Those who actually conducted the bullying have lied, misled and covered it up. Emma and Mike were lied to and their mistake was trusting the people lying. The cloud of suspicion and confusion Cenk and Ana generated served its purpose of hiding what really happened. Credit to them for having the integrity to acknowledge their regrets and express the wish they had made different decisions.
These are the kinds of power dynamics explored in the film.
If it creates clouds of confusion like a union-buster…
IATSE & PROMINENT UNION OFFICIALS
During the union-busting Cenk says he definitely didn’t do, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) were joined by prominent union Presidents and officials in support of TYT’s unionizing workers.
Unlike union-busting CEOs such as Cenk Uygur, they are pro-worker and conduct themselves accordingly, an ideological bias worth recognizing. It’s fair to consider them subject-matter experts on what constitutes union-busting.
Like ducks, Cenk’s union-busting wasn’t exactly subtle.
IATSE tweets
- February 21, 2020 — IATSE announces Cenk’s decision to reject voluntary recognition of TYT Union — a critical first step in all union-busting campaigns. Delay the process to allow the coercive mechanisms and inherent power imbalance bosses enjoy time to work.
- February 21, 2020 — Following The Young Turks first public accusations that Cenk’s establishment opponents were behind TYT Union, IATSE addresses the charges of conspiracy.
Though early in the process, it was already clear Cenk’s behavior amounted to bullying. This is true of all union-busters. Union-busting is bullying. It’s organized, expensive bullying. It works because it hurts people, otherwise CEOs wouldn’t use it.
The goal is to stop a union from forming and the leverage to achieve that is stress.
- February 22, 2020 — IATSE again clarifies its organizing (which was invited on two separate occasions by TYT workers to address ongoing grievances) is about workers and their right to collectively bargain.
IATSE’s statement lays it out.
“… politics quickly became a handy distraction for him and TYT …” captures how the conspiracy lie serves Cenk’s intention to obscure his hypocrisy and describes it as “yet another union busting tactic.”
Our organizing efforts are all about the workers at TYT, who joined together in union for representation and came to the IATSE for help. Uygur’s political campaign has nothing to do with this, but politics quickly became a handy distraction for him and TYT as they ignore the face that their “progressive” media outlet failed to live up to its principles and voluntarily recognize the union of the workers, even though they had a majority of the unit.
This distraction is yet another union busting tactic — a way to make the union to be an “other”, or third party. Whichever of our Local Union affiliates may or may not have endorsed a candidate has nothing to do with the workers who want representation by Local 700 and the other locals in this organizing drive. The TYT workers are all that matter in this situation and we will keep fighting to get these workers protected by a fair union contract as quickly as possible.
As has always been true: The union drive at TYT was only ever about workers, their working conditions and their right to improve them using collective bargaining.
The final sentence nails it. Protection.
Remember: Core to our 2019 unionizing effort was because I was excluded from any and all benefits others received for doing the same job. No paid time off, no bonus, no health insurance. Nothing. Besides the income I earned but didn’t receive, the stress and the unfairness of it all, it was simply unsafe to be without health insurance. This is the material reality so many of us face. Even with the terrible, expensive, soul-draining healthcare system we have, where even those “lucky” enough to have insurance rarely experience the safety they deserve, it’s better to have it than not. Living without health insurance is more dangerous. It means increased risk. Danger. Threat. Worry. Fear. Stress.
All workers deserve safety. Despite what he might tell a camera, Cenk Uygur is not of this opinion. He answered both my requests to receive benefits for full-time work with ‘no.’ I hoped he might do the right thing but I was unsurprised he refused.
A union contract was my only chance for achieving the minimal security I deserved. Unions protect.
Collective bargaining is about safety.
- March 11, 2020 — IATSE tweets a list of TYT’s “tired union-busting tactics” and encourages support of the Action Network Petition to end Cenk’s “senseless union-busting campaign.”
Prominent Union Officials
- February 24, 2020 — Former AFL-CIO President and longtime union leader Richard Trumka cut right to the point.
“This is union-busting, plain and simple.”
- February 26, 2020 — Current President of the AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler, expressed a common refrain about the nature of union-busting.
“Union busting is disgusting,”
- February 26, 2020 — The AFL-CIO reiterates the sentiment, emphasizing the point with hand-clap emojis.
Union 👏🏼 Busting 👏🏼 is 👏🏼 Disgusting.
(say it out loud and do the hand claps for real; it’s kinda fun!)
- March 5, 2020 — Liz Shuler tweets The New Republic article and emphasizes Cenk’s lying for what it is. (lying)
“— a boss who claims to be on the worker’s side but won’t recognize its union is lying.”
For more on Cenk’s lies: TellTheTruthCenk.com.
Scroll down to the “Story” section to read what Cenk lied to hide.
- March 5, 2020 — The AFL-CIO quotes a unionizing TYT worker from the In These Times article.
“If the company is gonna punish us,” the TYT worker said, “that just underscores why it’s important for us to organize.”
Even workers with good bosses benefit from unionization but a boss like Cenk is exactly the type unions are a means to check. His employment practices were unethical and disrespectful but only by negotiating as a group could we be strong enough to withdraw consent.
- March 6, 2020 — UAW President Shawn Fain’s Chief of Staff, Chris Brooks, detailed Cenk Uygur’s various union-busting tactics.
refuses to voluntarily recognize the union
admits workers who support the union have been denied promised raises & bonuses
pro-union worker was fired by Cenk Uygur
- March 6, 2020 — AFL-CIO expresses the obvious truth this article is about: 🦆
“If it looks like union busting and sounds like union busting, then it is union busting. 👀”
Allow me to add my own eyes emoji: 👀.
Cenk Uygur’s union-busting is incredibly well documented.
CONCLUSION: Truth, Lies & Accountability
Let’s watch Cenk say, “No, I am definitely not a union-buster.” again
It quacks. It loves wet bread. It waddles, swims and flies. It has water-resistant feathers, paddle-shaped feet and unparalleled charisma. It breeds with ducks. It gives birth to ducks. It teaches duck babies how to be ducks. IT’S A DUCK!
Aside from the unusual tactic of publicly claiming his political foes started the union to harm his run for Congress, which forms the narrative backbone of “Tell The Truth, Cenk,” Cenk Uygur employed classic union-busting tactics, all of them tried-and-true techniques for disrupting solidarity and re-subjugating disobedient workers.
It should be taught. He is definitionally a union-buster. It’s textbook.
🦆
It’s not astonishing Cenk Uygur wants to escape accountability. That’s what delineates power and those who seek it: differing accountability standards.
Ruling class impunity. Getting away with it serves as proof of one’s privilege, one’s rightful place, the hierarchy upheld — Look what the poors can’t do that I can.
As he acknowledges later in the video, an appropriate response to a union-buster, at least on the side of the political aisle upon which Cenk has built his career, is anger.
Or, more broadly, what often stems from anger: accountability. Nothing upsets the cohort of CEOs, politicians and their lackeys more.
“Yeah, I can see why they’d be angry, but it’s not true!”
In asserting he understands ‘why they’d be angry’ while simultaneously lying about being a union-buster, Cenk is casting a familiar, tired old spell: He’s one of you when the camera’s on, but in meetings with his lawyers and in paperwork preventing full-time workers from getting benefits, he’s one of them.
The hidden Cenk is the one he really is — the kind of person who can sleep at night while he classifies someone working 40-hr weeks as “part-time” in order to keep their benefits.
Cenk Uygur wanted to bust a union. He tried to bust a union. He turned to organized bullying in order to do so. Ana wasn’t his only help. The trust of his audience and orbiters weren’t his only help. He hired professionals. He hired union-busting law firms and consulting agencies. Unlike school bullies, Cenk’s bullying had the might of commerce and his audience deserves to know how much of their money he spent in his quest to bust a union. He is a union-buster.
But he doesn’t want the accountability that comes with being a union-buster. He doesn’t want his audience to learn the actual reasons workers at his company secretly attempted to form a union on two separate occasions.
He doesn’t want his audience to hear the truth.
He lied to them about why we unionized in 2020 and he lied about being a union-buster in October 2024 and again in 2025 on the Jenerational Change Podcast (this is my next substack article; link when ready).
In this situation, truth and accountability are the same thing. Avoiding truth avoids accountability. Cenk avoids accountability by lying.
The Lie is a weapon in the class war, probably the one used most.
The impunity enjoyed by ruling class status is on full display and while the vast majority of union-busters face little to no consequence we can and should live in a world where preventing humans from negotiating as groups is a shameful relic of our past, not the reality of our present.
The better we understand how power works — and all labor stories are about how power works — the sooner we workers of Earth can escape the certain doom our betters have written for our future.
It starts with raising consciousness.
It starts with the simple belief that you deserve better. You deserve better.
It starts with standing up for ourselves, speaking truth to power and bearing witness to the struggle.
It starts with solidarity, the one force so powerful the capitalists designed a world around destroying it.
This is what “Tell The Truth, Cenk” is about. It’s bigger than Cenk, his lies and his clumsy capitalism. It’s an educational resource for anyone who’s ever had a job.
Together, using only the truth (and my video editing skills), we can force a union-buster to face the accountability HE AGREES he deserves but will lie to avoid.
Tell the truth, Cenk.
HOW TO HELP
For more about the film, including a trailer, a detailed story and sources, please visit TellTheTruthCenk.com. GoFundMe is the primary way and I’m putting together a promotional tour but other donation links (Ko-fi, paypal direct, patreon) can be found here here on linktree.
Your help is greatly needed to complete the film. The editing I got but I need money and promotional help. It’s been years of work and has been a long, joyless, difficult slog and I am so eager to be on the other side of it, but it must be completed with the polish and respect the story deserves.
There are very opportunities to stand up to a boss in this world and through this project, we can stand up together against Cenk Uygur.
Join me. I can’t do it alone.
Any bit of help is welcome and appreciated. Thank you.
-Hank