Cohen Joins NABET Team at ABC Negotiations

CWA President Larry Cohen joined NABET leaders at a bargaining session with ABC last week in Chicago, urging the network to see the union as a valuable partner that deserves respect and good-faith bargaining.

"He began by talking about the communications business in general and that we could be even better partners with the company because a lot of the issues on the broadcast side are permeating into telecom," NABET Vice President Jim Joyce said. "One of the company's claims is that they're in an advertising war with Google, and Larry told them, 'That fight is our fight.' He suggested ways we could work together on that, and on other regulatory issues."

The current ABC contract expired March 31 and in May NABET-CWA members at the network overwhelmingly voted to strike if necessary. ABC has demanded significant changes in jurisdiction and work rules and what negotiators call a "devastating" plan to freeze workers' pensions.

After a two-month break in bargaining spurred by the pension proposal, the union and company met for two weeks in Chicago at the end of May. Cohen joined them for their last session June 1.

The Chicago talks yielded minor movement by ABC on proposals regarding work rules, but negotiators said there is a lot of hard work still ahead. The union represents about 2,500 technicians, camera operators, news writers and other employees across the country

In a memo to the CWA Executive Board, Cohen praised NABET President John Clark and the rest of the negotiating team for staying focused and "not discouraged despite months of bargaining." Noting ABC-Disney's sky-profits, he said the company should be ashamed of its assault on workers' livelihoods.

"Disney stock is up 25 percent in the last year and has a market value of $70 billion," he said. "Yet more than half of our bargaining unit is freelancers with no employment security, and management still wants more."