CWA’s Major Issues All on the Table at ABC

For a snapshot of CWA's major issues, look no further than the ongoing talks between NABET-CWA and Disney/ABC.

When the two sides resumed negotiations Aug. 20 in Chicago after a nearly three-month hiatus, more than 100 issues remained on the table. But at their core, the talks for a new four-year contract boil down to CWA's four major issues: good jobs, retirement security, health care and bargaining rights.

"It's really a microcosm of what the union at large is fighting for," NABET-CWA Vice President and negotiator Jim Joyce said.

The issues include:

• Fighting off the company's sneak attack on workers' pensions. Several weeks into bargaining this spring, ABC announced it wants to freeze the pension plan, reducing the average participant's retirement benefit by 25 percent. NABET is also pushing for a pension hike for current retirees, who haven't seen an increase in more than seven years.
• The right to organize ABC employees by card check with a union proposal modeled after CWA's neutrality agreement at AT&T, formerly Cingular.
• Restoring retiree medical benefits that were lost in bargaining in 1989, affecting members who hadn't reached 45 by April 1 of that year. Also on the health-care agenda is company-sponsored medical coverage for daily hires, employees who effectively work fulltime but don't have equal benefits.
• Preserving the current seniority system to protect job security and fighting for union jobs in the company's new and rapidly changing technologies.

NABET President John Clark said ABC's attitude is an assault not just on its employees, but on the rights and well being of all workers.

"Throughout these negotiations, ABC management has been trying to undermine our members' security by attacking our pension and seeking to destroy our seniority system," Clark said. "That they try to justify these actions by saying they make us more like average Americans only goes to show how vital unions and effective collective bargaining are for the welfare of all workers in this country."

Unhappy with ABC's lack of movement at the bargaining table and spurred in particular by the demand for a pension freeze, NABET members voted overwhelmingly to strike if necessary.

NABET represents about 2,500 technicians, camera operators, news writers and other employees at ABC nationwide. The contract being renegotiated expired March 31, 2007. The week before talks resumed, hundreds of workers and supporters from fellow unions rallied in front of ABC stations in Chicago and New York.

[Updates on contract negotiations are posted at www.abc-contract.info. To show support for members at ABC and receive updates by e-mail, join the "Fair Contract at Disney/ABC Activists Network." Sign up in the box on the bottom right hand column of the homepage.]