Rallies Set Stage for New Round of Talks with ABC

With less than a week before bargaining resumes with Disney-ABC, members of NABET-CWA and scores of backers from other unions rallied at lunchtime in Chicago on Wednesday and New York City on Thursday.

"We passed out about 700 flyers that asked people to call the general manager at ABC in Chicago," said Ray Taylor, president of Local 54041. "As we were marching around, a secretary came down and told me, 'The phone keeps on ringing and ringing.'"

More than 100 issues remain on the table with ABC, where NABET's current contract expired March 31. Key issues include the company's demand for a pension freeze, retiree health care and rights to union jobs in new technologies.

The network sprung the pension demand on the union several weeks into bargaining in March and two months later NABET members voted overwhelming to strike if necessary. The negotiations scheduled Aug. 20-28 in Chicago are the first since two weeks of bargaining in late May. The union represents about 2,500 technicians, camera operators, news writers and other employees at ABC nationwide

The Chicago rally featured a four-piece band and drew supporters from the city's entertainment unions, the Chicago Federation of Labor, IBEW, SEIU as well as CWA Local 4250 and TNG-CWA Local 34071. They carried signs that said such things as, "Disney Hurts Working Families" and shouted, "Hey Disney: No Pensions, No Jobs, No Seniority, No Way!"

Taylor thanked everyone in an e-mail later, saying, "Your support has uplifted our membership's spirits and has energized our very firm resolve to achieve a fair and equitable contract." You can watch clips from the rally on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDLvNWbvmhQ

The New York rally in front of ABC headquarters on the Upper West Side was getting underway Thursday as the CWA Newsletter went to press. The rally is a joint effort of NABET and the Writers Guild of America East, which hasn't had a contract at ABC for 2 ½ years. Entertainment unions, local politicians, other CWA members in New York and CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton were expected to be on hand.

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.