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NABET-CWA Negotiates Historic $76 Million Back Pay Settlement with CNN Washington, D.C. (January 10) -- NABET-CWA, a sector of the Communications Workers of America, and its Local 11 (New York) and Local 31 (Washington, D.C.), have negotiated one of the largest back pay settlements in the 84-year history of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), requiring CNN America, Inc. to pay a total of $76 million to hundreds of broadcast technicians who were fired when CNN terminated its subcontract with union-represented employees at Team Video Services (TVS). The settlement provides substantial justice to workers who have been waiting more than 15 years to be made whole for the losses that they suffered as a result of CNN’s unlawful conduct. “After more than 15 years, this settlement agreement finally delivers justice for workers who experienced serious hardship in their lives due to CNN’s union-busting practices,” said NABET-CWA President Charlie Braico. “This incredible settlement in workers’ favor should send a very clear message to CNN and to other employers that union-busting is illegal and has consequences.” The union’s longstanding labor dispute with CNN threatened to disrupt the upcoming January 14 debate at Drake University, which CNN is hosting. NABET-CWA had advised the Democratic National Committee, Democratic presidential candidates who qualified for the debate, and CNN of its intention to picket the event. “We are grateful to Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez for his help ensuring that this debate will proceed without the disruption of a labor dispute,” said Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton. “The Democratic presidential candidates demonstrated their commitment to working people by intending to honor the picket line.” Under the terms of the agreement released today, CNN will pay $76 million to the NLRB, which in turn will make payments to the affected workers. The payments will compensate them for the protracted length of the case and the adverse tax consequences from the size of the payouts. NABET-CWA will withdraw all pending charges against CNN. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey played a constructive role in the settlement talks between NABET-CWA and CNN. CNN is part of AT&T’s WarnerMedia division. CNN’s ability to avoid taking responsibility for its unlawful behavior for over 15 years shows just how far U.S. labor laws that are supposed to protect workers have become rigged in favor of corporations. While CNN did everything possible to avoid complying with the law, many of the affected workers struggled to make ends meet with minimum wage jobs or were forced to uproot their families in order to find work. Several of the workers have died while waiting for justice from the company. Background: More than 300 working families have been seeking justice since 2004, when CNN ended its contracts with a contractor, Team Video Services (TVS), in order to bring the services in-house. Even though NABET-CWA represented the engineers and technicians employed by TVS, CNN refused to recognize NABET-CWA as the workers’ collective bargaining representative, refused to bargain over wages and other terms of employment, refused to retain long-term bargaining unit employees, and unilaterally changed the wages and benefits of the unit employees it retained. In November 2008, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that CNN’s misconduct violated federal labor law. Since then, CNN has sought to undermine the ALJ’s decision, filing more than 1,600 exceptions with the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) which were rejected by the NLRB in 2014. CNN then filed a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which upheld the NLRB’s conclusion that CNN discriminated against the union-represented TVS employees. NABET-CWA and CNN agreed in February 2018 to utilize the NLRB’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) Program to resolve the outstanding issues, including fair compensation for the impacted workers. The ADR process ended on November 15, 2019 without an agreement. ### — Jan 10
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CWA Praises Passage of New York Call Center Legislation In a big victory for CWA members, who have been writing letters, sending postcards to legislators, making phone calls, and traveling to the state capitol in Albany time and time again to get this bill passed, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the New York State Call Center Jobs Act into law on January 2. This new law is a historic advancement that will protect New York call center workers and other state taxpayers by denying state grants, loans, and tax breaks to companies that move New York call center jobs out of the country and by creating a "bad actor" list of companies that engage in this behavior. "We applaud the Governor for taking action today to protect New York's call center workers," said Dennis Trainor, Vice President CWA District 1. "Since 2006, New York has lost more than 40,000 call center jobs. It is long past time New York stopped rewarding companies that send call center jobs overseas with taxpayer dollars." Governor Cuomo's signing follows overwhelming and bipartisan support from the New York Assembly (130-18 vote in June 2019) and the State Senate (58-3 vote in March 2019). "Today is a great day," said Brittni Everett, a call center worker from Albany. "The voices of New York workers drowned out those of the big corporations who have prioritized profits over people. I am so proud of our elected officials for standing up for call center workers who just want to be able to rely on their good, middle-class jobs. As a single mother, I know the importance of this legislation first hand and I know how it will personally affect me and my child." CWA members worked hard to pass the New York call center bill, including lobbying, calling, and writing postcards to legislators, rallying, and holding press conferences to get the legislation over the finish line. — Jan 9
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CWA President Chris Shelton Featured on PBS Check out the trailer for "The Democracy Rebellion," which airs on PBS stations this month, featuring CWA President Chris Shelton. — Jan 9
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Organizing Update Sports Illustrated Employees of Sports Illustrated announced Monday that an overwhelming majority of the 80-person newsroom staff has signed cards indicating support for joining the NewsGuild of New York-TNG-CWA Local 31003. They are seeking voluntary recognition from the magazine's new operator, TheMaven. "We are fighting for a say in Sports Illustrated's future, for the job protections that allow us to freely pursue independent journalism, for the editorial standards and integrity that our readers demand, and for the diverse and equitable workplace we deserve," the group wrote. The news comes three months after TheMaven instructed Meredith, the former owners, to lay off more than 40 staffers as part of the sale of the publication and days after the official transition from Meredith to TheMaven. "As journalists, we hold the teams and athletes we cover accountable. It is our responsibility to do the same in our own workplace," Senior Writer Jenny Vrentas said in a press statement. "We are unionizing to ensure that Sports Illustrated is a safe, inclusive place to work, where all employees are treated equally and can continue to perform our jobs at a high level." ### The Springfield News-Leader The journalists of The Springfield News-Leader took action to get some local control over local news. On Monday, they announced they're forming a union at the Gannett-owned publication. Every full-time staffer at the paper signed a card indicating support for forming the Springfield News Guild, a unit of The NewsGuild-CWA's United Media Guild local. "For more than 150 years, we have written, photographed, and edited the first draft of Ozarks history," the Organizing Committee wrote. "We hold governments, businesses, and schools accountable. We capture and measure progress as it happens. We tell the stories of the incredible people who live here. But that work has gotten harder and harder as faraway executives have ordered cut after cut to our staff and our service to the community," they said. Workers plan to negotiate for better wages and benefits that will make jobs at the paper more stable. Joining together in a union will also give them "a seat at the table" the next time the company orders layoffs or other cost-cutting measures, they said. — Jan 9
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Pittsburgh NewsGuild-CWA Local Wins Arbitration on Health Care Premiums The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh-TNG-CWA Local 38061 has won a grievance protesting the Post-Gazette's failure to pay for healthcare premium increases for the past two years, the local announced Dec. 30. An arbitrator ruled that the company's failure to maintain the benefits violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement and instructed management to pay the amount necessary to maintain the benefit levels outlined in the contract and to compensate employees for any out-of-pocket expenses they incurred as a result of the company's refusal to pay the premiums. Management's failure to maintain employees' health insurance benefits was one of the issues that gave rise to recent protests by the local, including a month-long byline strike, a staff vote of "no confidence" in the executive editor, and staff leafleting about disputes with management outside public events. The arbitrator's ruling in the health care case "shows in no uncertain terms that our position was right all along," said Pittsburgh Local President Michael A. Fuoco. "If the company wasn't paying millions for bad legal advice from a union-busting attorney – as evidenced by this ruling and a recent federal court ruling regarding the Teamsters – we would have had fair and equitable contracts long ago." He urged the Block family, which owns the paper, to negotiate in good faith. "The future of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is at stake and we want to save it," he said. — Jan 9