How Has the Media Industry Changed?

The internet continues to provide new opportunities and challenges to media and all media workers. The disruption for print has been due to a much lower revenue stream on the digital side than home delivery of print issues provided. Several of the "national" newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post have been able to attain 15 percent or higher revenue from digital, and that's a breakthrough.

Although layoffs and reductions in force have just about stopped, some outsourcing continues. Staffing remains thin, and as a result, coverage is narrower. CWA, the Newspaper Guild, NABET-CWA and the Printing Sector continue to pursue every possible strategy to provide stability for media workers. Creativity in bargaining and organizing is key, as all media workers have been affected by changing technologies.

NABET-CWA continues to face difficult bargaining at both large employers like Disney/ABC and NBCUniversal, as well as at smaller or locally owned TV stations and networks, including McGraw-Hill in San Diego, Gannett Broadcasting in Cleveland, and FOX in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bargaining committee members have been fired at WHUT in Washington, DC, KGTV in San DIego, and WICU-TV in Erie, PA, and NABET-CWA is fighting these actions.

NABET-CWA also is concerned and active in the industry attempts to ease the regulatory oversight of the Federal Communications Commission as it pertains to TV station oversight and ownership. Ownership consolidation has already led to the downsizing of union jobs in many locations.

ABC -- Univision -- WDIV-TV -- U.S. HOUSE

Tough negotiations again are underway between NABET-CWA and ABC (owned by the Walt Disney Co.), with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services. Talks are going forward, despite ABC's unilateral and illegal, in NABET-CWA's opinion, declaration of an impasse in bargaining and implementing some provisions of its so-called last offer. The contract expired two years ago.

ABC's demands will harm the quality and quantity of good jobs, affecting about 2,000 members and daily hire workers in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It also wants to cut overall compensation for union workers, and is attacking retirement security and the NABET-CWA/ABC pension plan, which has a surplus and is more than 110% funded. These attacks affect current workers as well as retirees.

NABET-CWA has filed several unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relation Board over ABC's actions.

• NABET-CWA members ratified a new four-year contract with WDIV-TV in Detroit, covering 25 technical employees at the station. The contract provides for an overall wage increase, plus increases for several job titles. In a big victory, NABET-CWA successfully fought back against the company's demand to eliminate seniority and recall rights.
  
  
• Workers at an Univision-owned KABE in Bakersfield, Calif., are among NABET-CWA Local 95051's newest members. In the run up to the election, employees faced intimidation in one-on-one meetings with managers. "We all stuck together and watched each other's backs and kept at it. The Union's leadership told us exactly what to expect from the company and we were well prepared for all of their tactics," said Todd Thorpe, a Production employee.
  
  

• U.S. House photographers celebrate their win.

  Photographers, lab operators and an administrative specialist for the US House of Representatives -- the official chroniclers of lawmakers, visitors to the Capitol and congressional delegation trips abroad -- voted for a NABET-CWA voice. Workers voted to join the union not for more money -- as federal employees their salaries are set -- but for respect and better working conditions.
  
  
• NABET-CWA members and supporters are keeping on the pressure at Howard University, where five NABET-CWA members were fired from the university's public television station, WHUT Channel 32, after workers rejected a contract offer.

The NY TIMES -- Sign language Interpreters -- Plain Dealer

After 20 months of tough bargaining, TNG-CWA members at The New York Times have ratified a new contract. It wasn't an easy task. The newspaper's high-priced lawyers came to the bargaining table with a 61-page proposal filled with massive givebacks.

The New York Newspaper Guild-CWA created innovative workplace actions, including a silent protest outside the daily editors' meeting and carrying blank copies of the newspaper to drive home the Guild's slogan, "Without us ... The Times is just white space."

Members of Local 31003 at the NY Times at a contract meeting.

The local also developed a new type of defined benefit pension program, called the Adjustable Pension Plan. The APP will still pay members a good monthly payment for life, but it's affordable and eliminates risk for the company. It was key to settling the contract and maintaining the pension, and could be a solution for other locals also facing pressure to freeze defined pension benefits.

• More than 225 eligible certified American Sign Language interpreters at Purple Communications, the second largest video relay service provider in the country, joined TNG-CWA in California, Arizona and Colorado. The election opens doors to a new set of professional work standards for video interpreters, as well as advocacy opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.
  
  
• The Cleveland Plain Dealer is planning to cut a third of the newsroom staff in 2013. But TNG-CWA members and their supporters are standing tough. They're taking their case directly to the public, rallying the community to save the daily newspaper through a TV commercial, Facebook page and petition. Already "Hot in Cleveland" star Valerie Bertinelli has stepped up to help, and thousands have sent letters to the paper's owner Advance Publications.

Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector

CWA's Printing Sector reported that a case involving the fraudulent use of the Allied printing label has been settled. An Allied print shop in St. Louis reported the problem, and the investigation ended in a settlement that PPMWS Executive Officer Dan Wasser said was favorable to members.

A confidentiality agreement is involved but Wasser noted that the agreement also includes "a monitoring component to ensure that violations of the Allied Label do not occur in the future."

Many political organizations, non-profit groups, businesses and others insist on the union label on printed materials, and when the label is fraudulently used, CWA members lose out on the opportunity for work. Wasser urged PPMWS members to report any suspicions about the misuse of the union label. "Our jobs depend on it."

CWA/NETT and the Media Sector

Student in New York City studies fiver optic installation.

NBC was poised to rip miles of copper out of its iconic 30 Rock building in New York City and rewire it with fiber optic cable. But instead of outsourcing the work, the company recently partnered with CWA/NETT to train 40 daily hires to do the high-tech installation. "If NBC needs and wants manpower, we're certainly ready to develop that manpower because that's our future," said NABET Local 11 President Thomas Cappo.

CWA/NETT's mobile training lab recently traveled to Toronto, New York City, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Manchester, NH and Portland, ME, to teach the basics of Final Cut Pro to TNG-CWA and NABET-CWA members. More TV stations are migrating to Final Cut Pro video editing systems in broadcasting, and many newspapers are moving to video reporting without any preparation.

"In my 24 years of employment at the Ottawa Citizen, through many company owners, I have never once been given a formal training opportunity such as the educational course I attended in Toronto on behalf of this union. That it was my union that stepped in to fill this breach is in many ways not surprising to me," said Rosemary Knes, a participant at a recent editing course.