STRIKING WRITERS AT CBS RATIFY NEW 3-YEAR CONTRACT

After 6 1/2 weeks, CBS newswriters will finally be able to pay the rent and CBS news managers will finally be able to take time off to do their laundry.

Both the majority of the 315 striking members of the Writers Guild of America and their employer, CBS Inc., breathed easier Thursday after guild members voted 266-to-24 to ratify a new three-year contract with the network.

Strikers could be back at work as early as today.

Cheers and applause followed the secret ballot tally at guild headquarters in West Hollywood, where 61 of the 74 Los Angeles writers gathered to cast their votes on the contract. The local vote of those writers who walked out of KCBS-TV Channel 2, KNX-AM (1070) and CBS Television City on March 2, was 56 for and 5 against the new contract.

Breakdown on the contract ratification vote in other cities where CBS was struck was:

--New York: 170 for ratification, 18 against.

--Washington, D.C.: 8 for, none against.

--Chicago: 32 for, one against.

There was still no breakthrough announced on a similar impasse between ABC and its striking 125 guild newswriters as of Thursday afternoon, though guild officials hoped that the ratification of the CBS pact might spur on bargaining talks. Moments after the contract was approved in New York, the guild negotiating committee adjourned to a Manhattan hotel to continue haggling with ABC officials.

ABC’s owned-and-operated stations in Los Angeles, KABC TV Channel 7 and KABC-AM (790), are unaffected by the guild walkout. Newswriters at those stations are represented by the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians.

Under the new CBS contract, writers will get a 3% pay increase each year, which would amount to about $30 per week for those at the top of the pay scale.

Pay, however, was never the issue, according to the guild.

“This strike has proven that it is possible for 325 people to say no to a Fortune 500 company that believed that it could undo a hard-won contract simply because it wanted to,” said Mona Mangan, the chief negotiator for the guild. “This agreement is a result of the courage and tenacity of our members and the broad support we have received from so many within and outside our industry. We are grateful to them all.”

According to the guild, the walkout of an admittedly small number of specialized employees was over seniority rights, job security and, ultimately, the fate of the guild and other labor unions dealing with the new cost-conscious broadcasting networks.

The same week that newswriters struck CBS, that network’s news division discharged more than 200 employees in a cost-cutting maneuver that paid little heed to seniority. CBS veterans such as correspondents Ike Pappas and Fred Graham were fired along with support staff who had been with the company only a few months.

From the beginning of the strike, guild officials have flatly contended that CBS and ABC were attempting to break the union. On the picket line, frequent reference was made throughout the strike to the ill-fated 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controller Organization strike, which ultimately led to the dissolution of the union.

Guild members see the CBS pact, which retains arbitration rights for dismissed employees and a measure of seniority rights at CBS owned-and-operated stations, as the beginning of a labor backlash, at least within the broadcast and entertainment industries, against management.

“It’s like a return to the (labor solidarity of the) ‘30s,” said Joe Sullivan, a guild member who will return to work at KCBS today.

He pointed out that 2,800 NABET writers, technicians and other behind-the-camera personnel at NBC are currently working without a contract and face many of the same job security issues that faced the Guild.

NABET and NBC are currently at an impasse, but NBC has given NABET until Tuesday to ratify a new contract it tendered April 2 at bargaining sessions in San Diego or lose retroactive pay. The old contract expired at midnight on March 31.

CBS management does not necessarily agree that the new contract surrendered to union demands regarding job security.

The contract permits the network to protect 25% of the workers, regardless of whether they have seniority, but the rest can be laid off only based on seniority, the union said.

The network also can continue to use temporary workers, but it agreed not to hire temporaries to do work performed by union members who have resigned or been fired or laid off.

According to George Schweitzer, CBS vice president for communications, management and the union both triumphed. He issued a three-sentence release following the ratification.

“We are happy that this difficult strike is over and we can get back to business,” he said. “Both sides are to be commended for the resourceful way they have dealt with new concepts and other complicated issues. We look forward to restoring a mutually productive relationship with the Writers Guild and the important people they represent at CBS.”