In the News: Cohen Joins NABET Team at ABC Talks

Several weeks after 2,500 NABET-CWA members at ABC overwhelmingly voted to strike if necessary, CWA President Larry Cohen joined union leaders at a June 1 bargaining session with the network in Chicago.

Cohen urged ABC to see the union as a valuable partner that deserves respect and good-faith bargaining. "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,'" NABET Vice President Jim Joyce said. "He suggested ways we could work together on that, and on other regulatory issues."

But Cohen and the bargaining team say cooperation is a two-way street. ABC has demanded significant changes in jurisdiction and work rules and what negotiators call a "devastating" plan to freeze workers' pensions.