Union Appears to Have Acceded to ABC Terms

The union of production and technical workers that has been locked out of work by ABC television for more than two months appears to have capitulated to the network’s conditions for a return to work.

But although the two sides met for 9 1/2 hours on Friday, the network has not yet agreed to end the lockout, saying that final details remain to be worked out.

Any further delay could increase the pressure on leadership of the union, the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, or NABET, to place ABC’s latest contract offer before the full membership for an early vote. That is because several bargaining units have started petition drives to drop NABET as their bargaining representative and possibly affiliate with another union.

NABET’s 2,400 members at ABC, including 600 news producers and other behind-the-scenes workers in Los Angeles, have been working without a contract since March 31, 1997. After NABET’s five locals staged a one-day walkout last Nov. 2, the network locked its members out of work. On Dec. 11 the network submitted what it called its “final” contract offer to the union.

The lockout has taken a toll on the ABC network and local operations, which have suffered an embarrassing series of technical glitches gleefully chronicled on union Web sites. More telling, numerous Democratic Party politicians have refused to cross NABET’s picket lines, undercutting ABC News programming during the politics-heavy news period of recent weeks.

But the damage to the union may be longer lived. Union members say discontent is growing among the rank and file with the leadership’s handling of the contract talks. Among the leading complaints is the national union’s refusal to schedule a ratification vote on ABC’s offer, despite the unlikelihood that it will be improved.

Two bargaining units of NABET’s Burbank-based Local 57 comprising about 62 members, including radio talk show coordinators at KABC and news writers there and at the network level, have filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to drop the union as their negotiating representative. The NLRB has scheduled a vote among the radio coordinators for Thursday. A petition drive among L.A.-based engineers is also underway.

At issue in Friday’s marathon talks in Washington was a so-called return-to-work agreement that would remain in effect until the full contract was ratified, allowing NABET members to return to work within days.

ABC negotiators insisted in November that the union agree to give the network at least 72 hours’ notice of any job action likely to affect a broadcast, and 14 days’ notice of a job action affecting a remote broadcast such as a football game.

After weeks of rebuffing those terms, NABET agreed to them during Friday’s session, union officials said. A company spokesman said Monday, however, that the union had still not agreed to enforcement provisions that, among other things, would provide for damages in cases of illicit walkouts and for arbitration of any violations within 24 hours.

“All I know is they wouldn’t sign it [the enforcement provisions] in November and they wouldn’t sign it on Friday,” said Julie Hoover, the network spokeswoman.

Asked if the company would end the lockout if the union agreed to the enforcement terms, she replied, “That’s my understanding.”

But union officials said they are willing to accept the enforcement terms and made that clear on Friday. They accused ABC of “reneging” on its own return-to-work proposal.

“As of Friday they have every assurance and zero risk” of a job action, said union spokesman Tom Donahue. He contended that the company’s real aim is to “foster dissension and disunity within our ranks” by continuing the lockout despite the negotiations.

He called that “a failed strategy,” despite the decertification campaigns in Los Angeles.

“Dissension within the ranks is not of a significant degree,” he said. “Out of 2,400 members, there’s a radio group of 12 and a news writers group of 50. And that’s after two months of winter in Chicago and a lockout that covered Christmas and the New Year’s holiday.”