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NABET, ABC 'Hunker Down' to Reach Agreement
Months of negotiations with ABC have yielded a tentative 4-year agreement for NABET-CWA that maintains a longstanding pension plan and raises wages by 3 percent a year.
The settlement came at 1:30 a.m. Aug. 9 after five days of intensive off-the-record bargaining between the parties in Chicago to resolve core issues. The NABET negotiating committee agreed to a prompt ratification vote with the unanimous recommendation that the union's membership accept the proposed contracts. Voting will be conducted by mail, with results announced Sept. 26.
"This was a long and difficult process," NABET-CWA President John Clark said, "but both parties were able to hunker down on August 8th and work through all the issues to reach an agreement our bargaining committee could recommend to our membership."
The key issues resolved include the continuation of the ABC-NABET Retirement Trust as an active defined benefit plan with a 5.5 percent company contribution; removal of the company's ninth-hour straight-time proposal; annual wage increases of 3 percent over the life of the contract for units ratifying by Sept. 26, jurisdictional issues and improved holiday overtime payments for daily hires, among other improvements.
The pension plan was a main sticking point, with the company initially refusing to put any more money into the joint Retirement Trust.
Clark told the company during bargaining that of everything on the table, the pension proposal was generating the most anger among members. He said the union has a vested interest in the plan and that the bargaining committee was working in good faith to make sure it remained a viable, healthy benefit. "Our people rely on this," he said.
NABET-CWA members at ABC include employees at ABC's television and radio networks and station operations, including New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco engineering technicians; New York desk assistants; Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco news writers; New York radio talent coordinators; New York and San Francisco traffic coordinators; New York publicists; and Los Angeles plant maintenance and radio program coordinators. Several thousand additional employees who work for ABC each year on a daily hire basis are also union members covered by the contracts.
The new contracts, covering all ten units, would take effect upon ratification and would continue through an expiration date of March 31, 2007.
The settlement came at 1:30 a.m. Aug. 9 after five days of intensive off-the-record bargaining between the parties in Chicago to resolve core issues. The NABET negotiating committee agreed to a prompt ratification vote with the unanimous recommendation that the union's membership accept the proposed contracts. Voting will be conducted by mail, with results announced Sept. 26.
"This was a long and difficult process," NABET-CWA President John Clark said, "but both parties were able to hunker down on August 8th and work through all the issues to reach an agreement our bargaining committee could recommend to our membership."
The key issues resolved include the continuation of the ABC-NABET Retirement Trust as an active defined benefit plan with a 5.5 percent company contribution; removal of the company's ninth-hour straight-time proposal; annual wage increases of 3 percent over the life of the contract for units ratifying by Sept. 26, jurisdictional issues and improved holiday overtime payments for daily hires, among other improvements.
The pension plan was a main sticking point, with the company initially refusing to put any more money into the joint Retirement Trust.
Clark told the company during bargaining that of everything on the table, the pension proposal was generating the most anger among members. He said the union has a vested interest in the plan and that the bargaining committee was working in good faith to make sure it remained a viable, healthy benefit. "Our people rely on this," he said.
NABET-CWA members at ABC include employees at ABC's television and radio networks and station operations, including New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco engineering technicians; New York desk assistants; Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco news writers; New York radio talent coordinators; New York and San Francisco traffic coordinators; New York publicists; and Los Angeles plant maintenance and radio program coordinators. Several thousand additional employees who work for ABC each year on a daily hire basis are also union members covered by the contracts.
The new contracts, covering all ten units, would take effect upon ratification and would continue through an expiration date of March 31, 2007.