The NABET-CWA Network Negotiating Committee wanted to update you on recent developments concerning the NBCU contract talks. While a handful of meetings have taken place recently, the parties have still not yet reached agreement on a successor Master Agreement.
Specifically NABET-CWA and NBC Universal negotiators met in full committee in New York City on May 18 & 19, 2010 in an attempt to further narrow the issues between both sides.
Throughout these two days of meetings, the parties discussed a full range of concepts and solutions, with a sharply focused effort to resolve all outstanding open issues. These meetings were conducted in full committee sessions at the bargaining table and in smaller “off-the-record” subcommittee discussions. The parties attempted to bridge existing gaps on major issues of seniority/layoff, Content Producers/Digital Journalists, wages and overall term of agreement. The union made significant counterproposals on these issues with good-faith intentions to secure a long-term deal which addressed Company-stated concerns while protecting the interests of the membership.
On Monday, May 24, 2010 subcommittees representing both parties met once again. The response from NBC was unsatisfactory and fell far short of where the Union needed to be, in order to get a satisfactory deal.
Union negotiators stand ready to return to the bargaining process at any time, so long as the Company is prepared to engage in serious and meaningful efforts to negotiate and arrive at a fair contract.
In the meantime, members are reminded to ignore all rumors and contact your Local Union Office with any questions or concerns.
NABET-CWA Network Negotiating Committee
In a press release distributed May 15, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians revealed a new website – http://NBCFallLuneup.com – which shows what the NBC schedule could look like if the network doesn’t renew its contract with the union that represents nearly 3,000 of NBC’s workers, including technicians and news writers, right before their crucial upfronts presentations.
National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) Local 11 president Ed McEwan said that "... members across the country are angry about stalled negotiations for a new contract." The Union has created the website to make sure advertisers know what they’re dealing with.
“The upfronts are about promoting NBC's new seasons. By jeopardizing the careers of thousands of talented men and women across the country with damaging company proposals, there might not be a new season that NBC can be proud of”,” said McEwan. “Senior NBC executives need to recognize this and tell their negotiators to come back with a fair deal for everyone.”
NABET-CWA’s prior contract expired fourteen months ago on March 31, 2009, and despite nearly twenty months of negotiations, there has not been enough progress to ink a new deal. In particular, the NABET-CWA negotiating team believes management has continued to ignore the concerns of the union’s membership.
TURN OFF NBC4 !!!
EMPLOYEES OF NBC-UNIVERSAL NEED YOUR HELP TO HAVE THEIR VOICES HEARD!
Please turn off NBC4 until NBC/GE reaches a fair and equitable contract with our fellow workers. For decades, we the NABET-CWA Employees of NBC4 have been responsible for ensuring the technical excellence of NBC programs. Millions of households nationwide have tuned in to watch these shows. We are hard working individuals who have sacrificed an enormous amount of time away from our families over the course of our careers. We work long, hard hours, 24/7, weekends and holidays to bring entertaining and informative programs to NBC viewers. Our work is often performed in adverse conditions including severe weather and war zones.
NBC/Universal is owned by General Electric. They have targeted the jobs and benefits of our union members to drastically cut costs and keep their bottom line plump. Even in these difficult economic times NBCU had SecondQuarter earnings of $3.6 BILLION in revenue and $598 MILLION in operating profit. GENERAL ELECTRIC brought in $39.1 BILLION in revenue and $2.9 BILLION IN PROFITS during the second quarter.
NBC is now proposing a contract aimed at forcing out senior employees nearing retirement to be replaced by lower paid, less experienced workers. The quality of your local news is already suffering and your need for information will suffer also! NBC4 does not appreciate the talent, experience, dedication and professionalism that many of these long time employees have contributed to the decades of success of NBC/Universal.
We are fighting for fairness and for our families' livelihood.
With your help, a simple click of your tv-remote, you can help get the serious attention of this giant corporation to focus on the concerns of hard working men and women. Turn off NBC4! Thank You!
NBCU, and its corporate parent General Electric, are playing a new reality game with union employees and shareholders alike. The game is "Corporate Greed," and the goal is to make those who contribute to the success of the company into "The Biggest Losers," while senior executives and corporate board members line their own pockets.
In current negotiations with its workers, NBCU is pushing to change the 75 year relationship NABET-CWA has had with company. The contract expired on March 31 and union negotiators keep working to reach a new agreement, but NBCU is insistent on making draconian changes. The quality of these jobs and associated benefits would be significantly reduced, and would greatly impact union workers in New York, Chicago, Burbank, and Washington, D.C. who have been loyal to the company throughout their careers.
At the same time the company is also punishing loyal shareholders by playing this game. Recently, General Electric announced that it was cutting the shareholder dividend for the first time in 61 years!
The company claims it needs to cut the shareholder dividend by 66%, and needs to cut the quality of union jobs because of the poor economy, even though GE and NBCU remain profitable. In fact, during the first quarter of 2009, the height of the national economic downturn, NBC Universal earned $429 million (GE share $391 million) in profits!
So who is winning while workers and shareholders are losing? You just have to look at GE's recent annual report to see that seven senior executives and corporate board members are stacking up chips in their favor while workers and shareholders pay to the tune of $115 million. That includes current GE Chairman Jeff Immelt receiving over $14 million in total compensation in 2008, while Robert Wright and David Nissen split another $40 million between them despite having stepped down from their positions at GE in early 2008.
NABET-CWA members line Manahattan streets to send a message to NBC Universal.
NABET-CWA members were on hand for NBC Universal's star-studded Fall Preview Gala in New York City, but their message was one that company executives weren't too happy to hear.
Members of NABET-CWA greeted network stars, guests and advertisers outside the Town Hall Theater with leaflets and protest signs, calling on the public to support workers in their fight for a fair settlement.
Some 2,500 NBCU employees at the NBC Television Network and its owned TV stations in New York, Washington, D.C.; Chicago, and Burbank have been working without a contract for nearly two months.
"NBC Universal still doesn't seem ready to bargain a fair contract", said NABET-CWA President John S. Clark.
NABET-CWA locals have filed unfair labor charges and unit clarification petitions with the National Labor Relations Board and put NBC Universal on notice that workers will continue to mobilize across the country to fight for a fair and equitable contract.
Union Condemns Company Attempts to Outsource Work, Cut Quality Jobs
More than 2,500 NBCU employees at the NBC Television Network and its owned TV stations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Burbank have been working without a contract for nearly two months.Union and company negotiators have been meeting sporadically since last September; little progress for a new agreement has been made.
“NBC Universal still doesn‘t seem ready to bargain a fair contract,” said NABET-CWA President John S. Clark, citing several examples of NBC Universal‘s attempt to cut quality jobs and benefits:
·The company is trying to eliminate quality jobs by establishing a new, non-union represented “Content Producer” position at its owned stations.NABET-CWA represented workers, who have been doing this same work for decades, were told to reapply to these virtually identical jobs that would no longer include overtime pay and would reduce other compensation.
·NBC Universal announced plans to close its owned-station hubbing operations in New York and Burbank, Calif., and move them to non-union facilities at Crawford Communications in Georgia, and to shut its New York City Media Operations Center and transfer that work to its non-union CNBC facility in New Jersey.
·The company assigned MSNBC employees to design graphics for “The Today Show,” taking additional work away from New York-based NABET-CWA-represented employees.
NABET-CWA Locals have filed unfair labor charges and unit clarification petitions with the National Labor Relations Board and put NBC Universal on notice previously that workers will mobilize across the country to fight for a fair and equitable contract. The contract between NABET-CWA and NBC Universal expired at midnight on March 31, 2009. No new talks have been scheduled.
Mobilization Heats Up at Local 11 in New York:
CWA to Congress: Comcast Deal Bad for Workers, Consumers
As Congress begins to scrutinize the proposed Comcast/NBC Universal merger, CWA is warning key members that the deal would be disastrous for workers, given Comcast’s history of trampling on employees’ rights and workplace standards at the companies it purchases.
When Comcast merged with AT&T Broadband in 2002, it launched a deliberate campaign to purge itself of existing unions. “I will tell you, we’re going to wage war to decertify the CWA,” Comcast’s senior vice president in Oregon announced soon after Comcast took control of AT&T Broadband.
CWA represents Comcast employees in the Pittsburgh area. Comcast employees there were forced to go through four union elections in five years – three of them decertification attempts by the company – before they finally won their union voice. Getting a first contract required overcoming further delaying tactics by Comcast.
CWA also represents Comcast employees in the San Francisco Bay and Detroit metropolitan areas. In both locations, Comcast has shifted work to non-union, lower-wage contractors, reducing secure jobs in areas hard hit by unemployment.
Throughout the country, Comcast has developed a history of violating workers’ rights. It has fired and retaliated against workers who try to form a union. Although telecommunications historically have been a source of good jobs in the U.S., non-union cable workers’ compensation trails unionized telecom employees by an average of $13,000 a year. The great debt Comcast will take on to finance the deal will also put economic pressure on the financial future of the company and worker wages and benefits.
CWA is warning Congress that the proposed deal also would be bad news for consumers. After its takeover of NBC, Comcast would control one in every five TV viewing hours. It could raise prices for consumers, limit the number of independent and local voices, withhold programming for competitors and crush competition from emerging video outlets by starving them of content.
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