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NABET-CWA Cracks Final Frontier with Anchorage Local
Alaska bills itself as the "The Last Frontier" and, for CWA, it turned out to be true - at least when it comes to organizing in the United States.
A swift campaign by determined workers at the CBS-TV affiliate in Anchorage led to a history-making vote Aug. 29, creating CWA's first bargaining unit in the 49th state.
The wall-to-wall unit of 40 technicians, camera operators, reporters, anchors and other employees at KTVA-TV was organized by the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA Local 59051 out of San Francisco.
Just six weeks before the vote, workers called the local's president, Kevin Wilson, who flew to Alaska almost immediately. Two days later, they filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board and plunged into an organizing campaign.
Things had been grim at the station as a new owner took over the technical and sales end of the operation. Employees were fired, and then rehired - on probation.
"We took a pay cut, our medical benefits weren't as good, our vacation time was cut to two weeks, and we had to work a year before we accrued it. And we were on probation for 90 days," said Julie Tistinic, who has directed the newscast for the past four years.
The company running the newsroom cut the sports department based on a consultant's report, another blow to workers' spirits. Then a popular manager in the operations department was fired without cause. Tistinic said that in the week before she proposed a union to her colleagues, "I came home crying every night. Morale was at an all-time low."
In mid-July, Tistinic asked her co-workers what they thought about a union. "The response was overwhelming," she said. She was in the process of researching locals in Alaska, including the Teamsters, when an employee who'd worked at a NABET-represented station suggested she check out the broadcasting union, telling her, "They're great."
"I'd never even heard of NABET," she said. "I looked it up on the web and it looked good to me. That's when I called Kevin."
The station owners - the nationally known Media News Group and a smaller company of local TV stations, GOCOM - wasted no time fighting back. They immediately hired the anti-union law firm King & Ballow, which specializes in media. But the Nashville firm's reputation was well known within The Newspaper Guild-CWA, and staff told KTVA workers what to expect.
Wilson said it was like having a playbook. "Everything they said would happen, happened," he said. "We knew what was coming."
The union-busters' strategies include having a manager take one or two employees out for a nice meal, a soft approach to a captive audience meeting. Tistinic couldn't stomach it herself, but notes with a laugh how a couple of her colleagues turned the tables on the boss. "They said they were on the fence, so they got taken out for extra dinners," she said.
Ultimately, workers voted 24 to 15 for representation by NABET-CWA. They're preparing for negotiations, though a date hadn't been set by late September.
"I'm really happy, but still a little shell-shocked," Tistinic said. "It felt like such a long campaign, even though it really wasn't. It was a daily fight. When it was over, I felt like I'd been in a fist fight for six weeks."
There's still a lot of work to do and there are ongoing problems with managers, but Tistinic said morale is up and people are excited about bargaining. Meanwhile, other Alaska media are paying close attention.
"All eyes in Alaska are on us," she said. "This is a union state and other media are watching us to see what happens. They may decide to organize, too."
A swift campaign by determined workers at the CBS-TV affiliate in Anchorage led to a history-making vote Aug. 29, creating CWA's first bargaining unit in the 49th state.
The wall-to-wall unit of 40 technicians, camera operators, reporters, anchors and other employees at KTVA-TV was organized by the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA Local 59051 out of San Francisco.
Just six weeks before the vote, workers called the local's president, Kevin Wilson, who flew to Alaska almost immediately. Two days later, they filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board and plunged into an organizing campaign.
Things had been grim at the station as a new owner took over the technical and sales end of the operation. Employees were fired, and then rehired - on probation.
"We took a pay cut, our medical benefits weren't as good, our vacation time was cut to two weeks, and we had to work a year before we accrued it. And we were on probation for 90 days," said Julie Tistinic, who has directed the newscast for the past four years.
The company running the newsroom cut the sports department based on a consultant's report, another blow to workers' spirits. Then a popular manager in the operations department was fired without cause. Tistinic said that in the week before she proposed a union to her colleagues, "I came home crying every night. Morale was at an all-time low."
In mid-July, Tistinic asked her co-workers what they thought about a union. "The response was overwhelming," she said. She was in the process of researching locals in Alaska, including the Teamsters, when an employee who'd worked at a NABET-represented station suggested she check out the broadcasting union, telling her, "They're great."
"I'd never even heard of NABET," she said. "I looked it up on the web and it looked good to me. That's when I called Kevin."
The station owners - the nationally known Media News Group and a smaller company of local TV stations, GOCOM - wasted no time fighting back. They immediately hired the anti-union law firm King & Ballow, which specializes in media. But the Nashville firm's reputation was well known within The Newspaper Guild-CWA, and staff told KTVA workers what to expect.
Wilson said it was like having a playbook. "Everything they said would happen, happened," he said. "We knew what was coming."
The union-busters' strategies include having a manager take one or two employees out for a nice meal, a soft approach to a captive audience meeting. Tistinic couldn't stomach it herself, but notes with a laugh how a couple of her colleagues turned the tables on the boss. "They said they were on the fence, so they got taken out for extra dinners," she said.
Ultimately, workers voted 24 to 15 for representation by NABET-CWA. They're preparing for negotiations, though a date hadn't been set by late September.
"I'm really happy, but still a little shell-shocked," Tistinic said. "It felt like such a long campaign, even though it really wasn't. It was a daily fight. When it was over, I felt like I'd been in a fist fight for six weeks."
There's still a lot of work to do and there are ongoing problems with managers, but Tistinic said morale is up and people are excited about bargaining. Meanwhile, other Alaska media are paying close attention.
"All eyes in Alaska are on us," she said. "This is a union state and other media are watching us to see what happens. They may decide to organize, too."