AFTRA’S HALL READY FOR NETWORK NEGOTIATIONS

John C. Hall Jr. of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists says he doesn’t want a strike against the networks. It can be said that picketing is not his union’s penchant anyway. Its last walkout, lasting 13 days, was in 1967.

But strikes are always possible. And if the union calls one this year, those getting marching orders would include such prominent and diverse notables as Johnny Carson, soap-opera stars, game-show hosts and two millionaire anchormen, CBS News’ Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw of NBC News.

All belong to AFTRA, one of two major talent unions in broadcasting (the other is the Screen Actors Guild, which represents performers in film productions).

On Monday, AFTRA, on behalf of actors, singers, dancers and reporters who appear on live and taped network broadcasts, will start contract talks with CBS, NBC and ABC in New York. Its current three-year pact will expire Nov. 15.

This time, though, the union only seeks a two-year agreement, says Hall, AFTRA’s executive secretary. The reason: He wants to get a good fix on the ever-increasing impact of modern technology--such as increased use of satellites--and home videocassettes.

The information his staff gleans over the two-year period would be applied when the union negotiates its next, and probably longer, contract.

“The industry is changing too fast, and I don’t want to be a crystal-ball gazer,” Hall said in an interview. “I want to try to cut the (contract) period down and see what develops so we can properly negotiate for our people.”

(The coming talks don’t cover prime-time situation comedies or drama; they’re under a separate contract. When that agreement expires next June, its successor will be jointly negotiated by AFTRA and the Screen Actors Guild.)

Hall, a bearded, burly, opera-loving New Yorker who last July succeeded Sanford (Bud) Wolff as AFTRA’s chief negotiator, estimates that about 5,000 of the union’s membership of 65,000 will be the ones primarily affected by the new negotiations.

About 3,000 of them, he adds, are on-air newsfolk working in radio and television for the three networks and their owned-and-operated stations (including KCBS and KABC in Los Angeles and KNBC in Burbank).

The stars and supporting players of the networks’ 13 soap operas and 10 game shows are very much on his mind, and not just because Frank Maxwell, a regular on ABC’s “General Hospital,” is president of AFTRA.

But the negotiations also will center on what Hall calls “human rights” for the reportorial rank and file, the correspondents and reporters who go out and cover the news of the day.

Among other things, he’s seeking what the British call a “golden handshake”--a king-size farewell fee--for veteran correspondents who, after years of service, are told that their contracts won’t be renewed.

He declines to cite specific examples of correspondents to whom this has happened. However, the most prominent example is CBS News’ longtime Supreme Court chronicler, Fred Graham, who has been with the network for 13 years.

(In a recent interview, Graham said that CBS has told him it won’t be renewing his contract when it expires in January. Neither he nor CBS will discuss the matter publicly. But he is said to blame CBS’ decision on the company’s much-publicized cost-cutting efforts that stem in part from its multimillion-dollar fight against Ted Turner’s takeover attempt.)

“That’s a very top priority where I’m concerned,” Hall says, referring to network news veterans suddenly given the chop. “We can’t say to the networks, ‘You don’t have the right to do that, to not renew.’ But what we are going to say is ‘If you do that, it’s going to cost you, and it’s going to cost you big dollars.’ ”

Another big item, he says, is a proposal to stop “excessive use of correspondents’ time”--even when one’s contract allows what amounts to unlimited use of a correspondent in return for a large salary that exceeds AFTRA’s annual base salary for network newshawks.

The base salary already is a hefty one; Hall says it currently is about $50,000 a year. But “they’re (correspondents) being burned out,” he asserts, saying that the rising use of satellites for news coverage is worsening the problem by increasing competitive pressures.

A third big item: fees for network news-gatherers whose reports or features turn up in news videocassettes that are sold or, as in the case of CBS and American Airlines, become part of the in-flight entertainment package offered on cross-country flights.

The reporter whose reportage is used in such ancillary ventures now gets no extra money unless it is specified in what is known as a “personal service contract” between the correspondent and the network, Hall says:

“It’s not currently in our collective-bargaining agreement, and that’s got to stop.”

He has no estimate of how much this outside reuse of broadcast news reports and features now earns the networks each year. Still, he says, “that’s an extremely important issue and a big-money issue.”

During AFTRA’s 1967 strike, every on-air network news staffer joined in the walkout, save the late Chet Huntley of NBC’s high-rated “Huntley-Brinkley Report.” David Brinkley and others of anchor status, including CBS’ Walter Cronkite, refused to cross picket lines.

But Huntley continued working, contending that newsmen didn’t belong in a union that “represented actors, singers and dancers.”

At the peak of his career, Huntley’s annual salary was estimated at $200,000. Now, with Brokaw, Rather and ABC anchorman Peter Jennings earning far more than that, the stakes are far higher, both for the anchors and their networks.

Hall says he hasn’t spoken to the Big Three of anchordom about what they’d do were a walkout called. But he isn’t worried about it.

“If you’re asking me whether a man who’s making a million-plus a year is going to easily vote for a strike, the answer obviously is no,” he says. “However, I have no problem at all in thinking that our members will all support each other--none whatsoever.”

But “I don’t want a strike,” the union chief emphasizes. “Nobody wins in a strike.”