2 of 3 NABET Holdouts OK Contract

A major broadcast union and ABC said Friday they’ve signed a new contract that becomes effective today and lasts until March 31, 1993.

The agreement was signed after two of three hold-out units of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians ratified a contract approved earlier by a majority of 2,150 full-time and 350 part-time ABC employees. A NABET spokesman said the unit still refusing to ratify the pact consists of three news writers at ABC-owned WLS-AM in Chicago, and “we expect that something will be worked out shortly.”

The new agreement gives ABC employees a first-year bonus for ratifying it, then pay hikes of 3% per year in the contract’s second and third year, and a 4% increase in its last year.

The agreement comes a month before NABET begins negotiations with NBC. The union’s members struck that company for 17 weeks in 1987 before agreeing on a new contract that expires next March 31.