NABET STRIKE

After reading Howard Rosenberg’s article about the NABET strike (“Bitterness, Anger on Picket Line,” July 20), I felt compelled to write and say that as a reporter at Channel 4, I miss all the cameramen, sound men, editors, and others who work so hard every day to make me and the rest of the on-air people look good.

Putting on the news is a real team effort, and part of the team is missing. Ironically, I believe that the majority of strikers would’ve accepted NBC/GE’s latest offer and stayed on the job--but their union management would not let the rank and file vote on it. So we have a situation where talented, dedicated, important employees are forced to sit while the union and the management play politics--and viewers suffer.

Ernie Chacon, the subject of Rosenberg’s article, is one of the best newsmen I have ever met. Just a few weeks before the strike, he and his partner Scott Dereimer stood in the middle of a near riot outside the Glendale Library, steadily rolling away while bottles, cans and fists flew all around. They did it because it was their job, and because they wanted to get the best possible footage for my story and for the news that night. To think that the same people who literally risk their lives for me can’t come to work, and have to watch accountants, salespeople and secretaries do their jobs, is really sad.

I hope the strike ends soon and that everybody comes back to work and there aren’t any hard feelings. NBC will benefit and so will its viewers.

PHIL SHUMAN

KNBC-TV Channel 4 News

Burbank