controversy

Two Trans Netflix Employees Who Criticized Dave Chappelle’s Special Drop Their Unfair Labor Practice Charge

Terra Field and B. Pagels-Minor, both instrumental in the employee walkout against Chappelle’s The Closer, have reportedly “resolved their differences with Netflix” and no longer work at the company.
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Dave Chappelle: The Closer. c. Mathieu Bitton

The fallout from Dave Chappelle’s recent comedy special has left two trans Netflix staffers without employment. Software engineer Terra Field—who criticized The Closer and was subsequently suspended, then reinstated, after attending a quarterly business review meeting uninvited—announced her resignation from Netflix on Monday. Field and former Netflix employee B. Pagels-Minor are also withdrawing an unfair labor practice charge they filed in October, NBC News reports

“I’m not happy that this is how things turned out, but I do think this outcome is the best for all parties involved,” Field tweeted, sharing a copy of the resignation letter she sent to her team and the company’s trans employee resource group. “This isn’t how I thought things would end, but I am relieved to have closure,” Field wrote in the letter. “Shortly after B. was fired for something I did not and do not believe they did, I made a decision: sink or swim, I was going to walk side by side with B. as they had for so many of us while they led the Trans* ERG. Last week, B. had their son. They are both happy and healthy, and for me that is the note that I’d like this chapter of my life to end on. I want to focus on the joy, not the heartache.”

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While helping spearhead the Netflix employee walkout on October 20, Pagels-Minor was reportedly fired for leaking company financial numbers about Chappelle’s specials to Bloomberg. (Pagels-Minor, a program manager, has denied leaking any statistics.) Both Field and Pagels-Minor filed a charge of unfair labor practices against Netflix with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the company “retaliated against them for engaging in protected activity.” Laurie Burgess, the attorney representing the pair, told The Verge at the time of filing: “This is not just about B. and Terra, and it’s not about Dave. It’s about trying to change the culture and having an impact for others. The charge is all about collective action.”

Now Burgess tells NBC that her “clients have resolved their differences with Netflix and will be voluntarily withdrawing their NLRB charge,” declining to provide additional information. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that the company and staffers “have resolved our differences in a way that acknowledges the erosion of trust on both sides and, we hope, enables everyone to move on.” The spokesperson did not reveal if the employees agreed to a settlement. 

Upon its arrival on Netflix, Chappelle’s special sparked widespread backlash for material that targeted gay and trans people, including a joke in which he declared himself as “team TERF,” which refers to the term “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.” Netflix chief Ted Sarandos has come under fire for his ill-advised response to the controversy, on which he admits he “screwed up.” 

The Closer is still streaming on Netflix—without the disclaimer that members of Netflix’s trans employee resource group lobbied for during the protest.

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