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Ohio Community Backs Locked-Out NABET-CWA Members
NABET-CWA members at the CBS affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio, are getting a tidal wave of community support since being locked out January 31 when they overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer that would have raised their health care costs by nearly 400 percent.
"We're getting a tremendous response, from viewers, from the labor community and from advertisers," Local 54047 Steward Joe Bell said from a cell phone on the picket line as passers-by honked horns in support.
Bell, a reporter for 12 years at WKBN/WYFX-TV and a member of the bargaining committee, said Youngstown-area Steelworkers and school bus drivers who are also locked out of their jobs have helped the local's 35 reporters, photographers, anchors, weather specialists and directors keep the picket line going 24 hours a day.
Hitting the station in the pocketbook, about 30 major advertisers, including car dealerships and jewelers, are heeding the union's request to pull their advertising. And many government newsmakers are refusing to give interviews to the skeleton crew of non-represented on-air staff that is struggling to put together daily broadcasts. In addition, Ohio congressmen Ted Strickland and Tim Ryan, both Democrats, have sent letters to station management urging them to bargain fairly with workers.
The station is owned by Piedmont Television, a small chain. Bell said WKBN is Piedmont's only unionized station - and its most profitable. The station has a viewing area of a half million homes in the Youngstown area, midway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
On Jan. 31, management put forth what it said was its "last, best" contract offer. It would raise employees' share of health care coverage from 7 percent to 26 percent, with no pay increase in the first year and only 2 percent in the second and third years. The paltry offer came after the union last year met the company's request for wage concessions, cutting salaries by 1.95 percent and freezing raises. The vote to reject was overwhelming.
The union offered to extend the contract and continue bargaining, but the company refused and prematurely locked workers out before the contract terminated.
"We're getting a tremendous response, from viewers, from the labor community and from advertisers," Local 54047 Steward Joe Bell said from a cell phone on the picket line as passers-by honked horns in support.
Bell, a reporter for 12 years at WKBN/WYFX-TV and a member of the bargaining committee, said Youngstown-area Steelworkers and school bus drivers who are also locked out of their jobs have helped the local's 35 reporters, photographers, anchors, weather specialists and directors keep the picket line going 24 hours a day.
Hitting the station in the pocketbook, about 30 major advertisers, including car dealerships and jewelers, are heeding the union's request to pull their advertising. And many government newsmakers are refusing to give interviews to the skeleton crew of non-represented on-air staff that is struggling to put together daily broadcasts. In addition, Ohio congressmen Ted Strickland and Tim Ryan, both Democrats, have sent letters to station management urging them to bargain fairly with workers.
The station is owned by Piedmont Television, a small chain. Bell said WKBN is Piedmont's only unionized station - and its most profitable. The station has a viewing area of a half million homes in the Youngstown area, midway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
On Jan. 31, management put forth what it said was its "last, best" contract offer. It would raise employees' share of health care coverage from 7 percent to 26 percent, with no pay increase in the first year and only 2 percent in the second and third years. The paltry offer came after the union last year met the company's request for wage concessions, cutting salaries by 1.95 percent and freezing raises. The vote to reject was overwhelming.
The union offered to extend the contract and continue bargaining, but the company refused and prematurely locked workers out before the contract terminated.