A Decade of Injustice at CNN

WASHINGTON, DC – Why does the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) matter? It matters for hundreds of former CNN employees who have been waiting a nearly decade for justice.

“I hear the Congress say every day, ‘We’re here for the American people.’ I am the American people. Are you here for me?” said Tyrone Riggs, who lost his job in 2003 when CNN created a phony reorganization scheme just to get rid of union-represented workers.  

Click HERE to watch Tyrone’s story.

It’s not just CNN workers. The NLRB is the sole agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law and protecting the rights of 80 million private sector employees nationwide. Now, unless the Senate majority acts to confirm all five nominations to the NLRB before the August recess, the right to organize and bargain, the right to labor law protections, and the right to free speech in the workplace will all be in jeopardy.

As part of the campaign to make sure that the NLRB remains fully functional, CWA has launched a new and innovative online engagement campaign to call on the Senate to confirm the current five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Using “Twitter Card” advertisements, CWA allows supporters to sign an online petition calling on the U.S. Senate to confirm the NLRB nominees with just one click. These targeted Twitter advertisements aim to ensure that key democratic constituencies understand what is at stake in July.

Here are the facts about CNN:

• In December 2003, CNN terminated its longstanding technical subcontracting relationship at Team Video Services (TVS), a firm which had employed over 250 NABET-CWA-represented workers in Washington, D.C. and New York.  Unfair labor practice charges were filed by the union at the NLRB which, due to various delays, were not brought to trial before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) at the NLRB for almost five years.
  
  
• Finally, in November 2008, after 72 days of trial, the ALJ ruled against CNN and in favor of NABET-CWA.  The ALJ found, in part, that CNN had engaged in “widespread and egregious misconduct” and had demonstrated “a flagrant and general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights.” 
  
  
• The ALJ’s 169 page decision ordered the employer to take seven basic actions to remedy the widespread violations of the National Labor Relations Act engaged in by CNN: 1) To reinstate and provide full back pay to more than 110 employees, including providing training for this group of employees where necessary; 2) To recognize NABET-CWA in both New York and Washington, DC; 3) To remit dues to the union for all those employees on check-off at the time both contracts were cancelled; 4) To rescind any changes to the collective bargaining agreements that resulted when CNN took the TVS work in-house; 5) To restore any bargaining unit work that was outsourced since the end of the TVS contracts; 6) To post notices at CNN’s two bureaus and mail notices to all employees who were part of the bargaining unit at the time the TVS contracts were cancelled; 7) To cease and desist from infringing on workers’ rights in the future.
  
  
• Workers had little to show two years after the decision. CWA filed with a motion with the NLRB, calling on the board to give this case priority over all other pending cases on October 14, 2010.
  
  
• But this decision has still not been implemented. Even though the ALJ ordered reinstatement, back pay and other important relief for these workers, not a single remedial step had been undertaken by CNN. Instead, the company continues to stall by appealing the ALJ’s decision.

To learn more about the NLRB crisis visit www.GiveUs5NLRB.org

Contact: CWA Communications, 202-434-1168