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Seattle Broadcast Workers Fight Ultimatums

June 28, 2011

Last October, Seattle Local 46’s contract covering broadcasting workers at KIRO-TV expired. Since then, a bargaining unit committee led by Business Representative Angela Marshall has been working to reach agreement while working on month-to-month extensions of their agreement.

Management continues its drive to gut language on past practice and remove rights to effects bargaining. KIRO is also holding out for a clause that would bar workers from hand-billing and informational picketing, even though the local has not conducted such activities in several years.

In May, a dispute erupted in an ongoing skirmish that has persisted since new technology was introduced in the control room in 2007.The dispute eclipses all others in the negotiation and has resulted in NLRB charges.

In 2007, the station began using a new software program, Ignite, which dramatically reduced the number of jobs in the control room. Traditionally, control room crews consisted of producers, directors, technical directors, audio engineers, a tape operator and one or two camera operators in the newsroom. 

Now control rooms can be operated with just one operator. Because most of the functions were formerly assigned to bargaining unit workers, Local 46 negotiated an agreement providing for the station’s Ignite operator work force to consist of at least 50 percent members of the bargaining unit.

This spring, however, in the midst of contract negotiations, KIRO’s news director and general manager called bargaining unit Ignite operators into the office one by one and notified them that they were being given the option of relinquishing their bargaining unit rights or being laid off. They were offered a pay increase if they left the bargaining unit and were told that they must make their decisions within 24 hours.

The operators called Marshall who was meeting with the local’s lawyer preparing for an NLRB hearing. Operators were advised by counsel to accept the company’s ultimatum. Local 46 immediately filed NLRB charges on their behalf, contending that the station was engaged in direct dealing with employees, intimidation and coercion. Says Marshall, who is a former KIRO shop steward:

This is a really big issue going forward. Disputes over which jobs are properly placed in the bargaining unit are natural. But establishing a precedent for simply reclassifying jobs and pulling them out from under the union’s protection would be damaging at KIRO and across the nation. Stations would keep grabbing for more.

Chuck Carter, a 15-year KIRO broadcast engineer and Local 46 shop steward contrasts IBEW’s negotiations to those of KIRO’s photographers, members IATSE and reporters, members of AFTRA.  Both groups reached their current agreements without giving up jobs.  Says Carter:

Our members are frightened that if we keep losing bargaining unit positions, we won’t have a union left.

Carter knows how much pressure the utilization of Ignite exerts on the remaining operators. Ironically, he says, that pressure comes at the price of quality news. He says:

Edward R. Murrow told us that it’s a news crew’s responsibility to keep the public informed to the highest standards. Ignite throws quality out the window and interferes with our ability to report on breaking news.

A steward for three years, Carter adds:

I came to KIRO to work with high-caliber professionals.  It makes me crazy that I have to fight with station managers to treat them well. Managers don’t go around and tell people that they are doing a good job, so I do. Our members deserve positive reinforcement.

Carter expresses hope that the bargaining unit will prevail in achieving a decent contract.But events in Wisconsin and elsewhere have convinced him that victories won’t come easily. He says:

Unions will stand as long as people stand.