NPR Workers Picket, Seek Public's Help as Employer Demands More Cuts

A year after NABET-CWA members made big sacrifices to help National Public Radio weather the bad economy, NPR is thanking them by demanding even more job and benefit cuts.

Carrying signs reading "This is NPR?!?!?!," audio engineers and other members of Local 52031 picketed and leafleted outside NPR's headquarters in downtown Washington.

In crisis bargaining last year, as NPR was losing donations and corporate sponsorships because of the economic downturn, the NABET-CWA local agreed to concessions amounting to about $17,000 per worker over 18 months to keep NPR going. The current contract expires March 31; bargaining began last October.

"Even as the economy bounces back, NPR is demanding more cuts and is attempting to take away the work that skilled audio engineers do best," NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce said.

Among its demands, NPR wants to cut half of the unionized engineers' jobs and end workers' input into benefit plans. "They want to continue shifting costs to employees, but now they want to do it without any ideas or feedback from us," Joyce said. NPR is also backing out of a verbal pledge to restore its full contribution to the workers' retirement fund.

An NPR worker too fearful of being fired to be named said, "It's very disappointing that our employer is not showing a willingness to live up to its reputation as a worker-friendly organization. People are NPR's biggest asset, and the fact that it is refusing to work with us is infuriating."

NABET-CWA is asking CWA members to email CEO Vivian Schiller at vschiller@npr.org or call (202) 513-2000 to demand she treat workers with the respect that NPR listeners expect. You can also join and comment on the workers' Facebook page, "People Who Like People Who Work @ NPR."

Photo Caption: NABET-CWA members at National Public Radio protest demands for steep job and benefit cuts.