Union Moves Closer to New Contract at ABC

A majority of National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians workers at ABC have voted for a new contract offer, the network said Friday, but ratification was held up by members of eight units who rejected the four-year pact.

However, union spokesman John Krieger said that NABET hopes to have the matter resolved “within a couple of weeks, hopefully sooner” after joint meetings of union and management with the dissenting NABET members.

The union--which ABC says represents 2,150 full-time workers, the majority of them engineers--said that the engineering contingent narrowly approved ABC’s contract offer by a vote of 802 to 782. It gave no other vote totals.

Under NABET’s rules, all 19 of the union’s units at ABC must approve any new contract. ABC said that the balking units represented only about 100 people. Included among the units that rejected the contract were two in Los Angeles, representing hairstylists and makeup artists and plant maintenance personnel.

A similar rejection by several dissenting NABET units in 1987 delayed for a few days final approval of an NBC-NABET contract after a strike that had lasted 17 weeks.

The threat of a strike at ABC this year didn’t loom large after the union’s old contract ended on March 31. Although ABC’s first contract offer was rejected, no strike vote ever was taken.

The new contract, under which ABC will be allowed to pink-slip 60 to 70 radio engineers, would give union members a 7% lump-sum bonus upon ratification of the contract, 3% pay raises in each of the second and third years of the contract, and a 4% hike in its fourth year.

Despite the fact that the contract has not been finally ratified, ABC said in a statement that it was “extremely gratified” by the vote. “We’ve gained some of the flexibility we need while providing NABET employees with protections they sought,” the network said.

In addition to the ABC television network and radio networks, the contract covers eight radio stations and four TV stations owned by ABC/Capital Cities, Inc., including KABC-AM (790) and KLOS-FM (95.5), and KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles.