Union, NBC to Resume Talks in TV Labor Row

As representatives of NBC and striking technicians prepared Friday for their first bargaining talks in nearly a month, lawyers for U.S. Atty. Richard Bonner promised in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that the federal prosecutor would not repeat the kind of request that barred a KNBC-TV Channel 4 news crew from a press conference last week.

Bonner’s attorneys made the pledge in response to an order issued by U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian that Bonner disseminate a policy statement to the major news media promising to include all news media in any of his future press conferences.

Meanwhile, a federal mediator called for negotiators from the network and the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) to meet in New York on July 20 for new talks aimed at ending the union’s strike against the network.

Last Talks June 16

The planned meeting, called by Brian Flores, New York regional director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, would be the first contract talks since June 16. The union’s 2,800 members at NBC walked out June 29.

The Los Angeles federal court decision followed a temporary restraining order issued last week by Tevrizian after Bonner ejected a KNBC crew from his press conference on July 1 when unionized news crews for eight other Los Angeles television stations refused to film his presentation in the presence of the non-union KNBC camera team.

In restricting his previous order against the government, Tevrizian said that Bonner did not follow the dictates of any official policy, but had instead “exceeded his (own individual) discretion” by excluding the KNBC camera crew. The order will be lifted, Tevrizian added, as soon as Bonner “reduces to writing a policy (statement) and sends it the various news media.”

Will Comply

Assistant U.S. Atty. George Wu, who represented the government, said that Bonner would immediately comply with the judge’s order by reiterating a similar pledge he made on Tuesday in an internal memorandum.

But what effect the order may have on the 700 NABET members striking KNBC and NBC operations in the Los Angeles area is unclear.

“We are very pleased that the U.S. government has agreed that NBC will be included in all future news conferences held by federal officials,” NBC spokesperson Jay Rodriguez said in a prepared statement after the hearing.

Carrie J. Biggs-Adams, president of NABET Local 53, claimed that the order preserved the rights of NABET members to continue picketing KNBC news crews when they go on location.

“The restraining order is back where it should be, that is Mr. Bonner,” Biggs-Adams said, because the injunction was restricted to an individual, rather than the U.S. attorney’s or marshal’s office, as KNBC’s attorneys had requested.

A broader order, Biggs-Adams said, could have had a “chilling effect” on NABET’s ability to picket at press conferences called by other government officials.

She also emphasized the possibility that NABET and other unionized crews working for other news services may choose to respect NABET picket lines, thereby effectively boycotting a news event covered by a KNBC non-union camera crews.

Directors’ Talks

In another Hollywood labor dispute, negotiators for the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Directors resumed talks Friday in an effort to avert the first strike in the guild’s 51 year history.

Directors had set a 6 p.m. Friday deadline for the producers to respond to a complex offer on residuals and other issues that was made by directors on July 1. Representatives of the union and the producers, who recessed a 16-hour bargaining session at 2 a.m. Friday, were back in negotiations at mid-morning.

Based on what producers propose during the talks, the guild’s national board on Saturday will decide whether to order a strike, continue talks or take other action, union officials said.

Separately, negotiations between the television networks and their staff directors resumed Friday. Those talks, which earlier in the week were held in New York, also faced the 6 p.m. Friday deadline and the possibility that a strike will be called Saturday.

Times staff writer Jay Sharbutt in New York contributed to this story.