TV & VIDEO - Jan. 31, 1989

Contract talks between the three major networks and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists resume in New York today after a week’s recess. AFTRA’s previous contract expired Nov. 15, but is being extended on a day-to-day basis. The negotiations affect news anchors and reporters, daytime soap operas and game shows, late-night and morning programs, and on-air personnel at network-owned stations. Prime-time network programs are covered by a separate contract. “Some progress” is being made in the negotiations, an AFTRA spokesman said Monday, but he declined to give specifics. The talks between CBS, NBC and ABC and the union began Oct. 3. A majority of AFTRA members have given their representatives authority to call a strike. AFTRA last struck the networks in 1967. The union says it has 70,000 members and estimates that between 3,000 and 4,000 of them work at the networks.