NABET-CWA/ABC-Disney Negotiations
Update:
March 25, 2013: Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George H. Cohen issued the following statement today on the labor negotiations between ABC Inc. and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA):
"I am pleased to announce that at
the culmination of a marathon bargaining session conducted under my
auspices, the parties have reached a comprehensive initial Memorandum of
Agreement."
"The Agreement is subject to
union ratification, but it represents a major step toward the successful
completion of long and difficult negotiations."
Additionally, the NABET-CWA Network Negotiating Committee is reporting the following:
A tentative agreement has been
reached with ABC-Disney on a new four year contract to replace the
Master Agreement which expired on March 31, 2011. This contract offer is
the result of a fifteen hour mediation session conducted on March 22,
2013 at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service. That mediation session was led by National FMCS
Director George H. Cohen.
The new contract, when ratified,
will cover approximately 2500 staff and daily hire employees working as
broadcast technicians, telecommunications specialists, news writers,
producers, desk assistants, publicists, and plant maintenance personnel
at various Company Network and TV station operations in New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. The contract
includes ABC news and entertainment programs and ESPN sports broadcasts
airing on ABC.
Nationally syndicated talk shows “Katie” and “Live with
Kelly and Michael”, as well as the ESPN programs “Pardon the
Interruption”, “Around the Horn”, and “Highly Questionable” are also
covered by this agreement. Additionally, this new contract establishes
NABET-CWA’s jurisdiction for ABC provided content for the newly launched
“Fusion” cable news channel, a joint venture between ABC-Disney and
Univision.
While complete details of the
contract offer will be made available within the next few days, this
package contains a number of improvements from ABC’s stated “Last, Best
and Final” offer.
These improvements include enhancements in the areas
of economics, jurisdiction, and retirement benefits for staff and daily
hire employees.
The contract offer was also improved to add an
additional year of security to the agreement, setting a new expiration
date of March 31, 2017,
as well as an additional wage increase.
The new contract also requires
early negotiations for the next Master Agreement, commencing by October 1, 2016, with automatic involvement of Federal Mediators if a successor contract is not reached by March 1, 2017.
The wage offer contains a total
of 9% (up from 6.5%) in wage increases over the next four years (2.5%,
2.0%, 2.0%, and 2.5%) effective March 30, 2013, if the offer is ratified by May 17, 2013.
NABET-CWA Locals 16 (New York),
31 (Washington, D.C.), 41 (Chicago), 51 (San Francisco) and 57 (Los
Angeles) will be conducting membership meetings and providing further
information on this contract offer during the ratification process.
In the meantime, we remind you to ignore all rumors. All official updates will be delivered on the Sector website (www.nabetcwa.org), on Local websites, hotlines, and e-mail lists.
In Solidarity,
NABET-CWA Network Negotiating Committee
NABET-CWA • 501 3rd Street NW • Washington, DC 20001 • 202-434-1100
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