Local 600 Fights For New Media Jurisdiction in Local TV

Local 600 Fights For New Media Jurisdiction in Local TV

Our photojournalist members at KIRO-TV in Seattle have been without a contract for 19 months in the face of a demand from the Company that Local 600 agree to give up jurisdiction over new media and the Internet.

I want to take this opportunity to praise our members at KIRO who have steadfastly refused to cave in on this most vital issue facing our Guild. If we give up new media jurisdiction, we have little or no future.

That contract fight in Seattle moves to a new phase next week at a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board to consider our petition for a “Unit Clarification” – we contend that KIRO’s website should properly be considered part of our bargaining unit. Our attorneys tell us that we have an excellent chance to prevail.

While that is good news – and better news once we win – the Company has already told us that they will appeal if they lose and drag it out for years.

For that reason we have to keep up the pressure at the bargaining table, and in a public information campaign that calls upon KIRO to give up on its plan to create a non-union operation in New Media.

Please join me in saluting out sisters and brothers shooting the news in Seattle. Their fight is our fight.