KMEX Contract Talks Heat Up

As tempers cool after a recently ended hunger strike by workers at the Fresno affiliate of Univision, the country’s largest Spanish-language television network, contract talks are heating up at the network’s most critical station, KMEX-TV in L.A.

The negotiating team for the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, which is representing the workers at the flagship station, says 85 members are willing to strike if Univision doesn’t meet their contract demands, which include salaries more in line with their counterparts at English-language stations.

The current contract expired March 31, and in mid-January KMEX management and union members met to discuss terms of the new contract. The two sides weren’t able to agree on a contract extension, and on April 4 the union voted to negate the existing terms, a decision that leaves them without a contract on May 4.

“We tried to impress upon the company the importance of wrapping up negotiations,” said Mike Pearman, master control technical director and a 15-year KMEX employee.

Pearman, an elected member of the negotiating team, met with management on Monday at KMEX studios in Culver City. Another meeting is scheduled to take place Friday, but because television ratings sweeps begin April 27, Univision has not scheduled any further union talks for the next four weeks.

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The negotiator for NABET was not available for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday, but Pearman said they had offered to meet with KMEX “any day every day.”

“We were willing to negotiate continuously if that’s what it takes. And that’s what we offered them,” he said.

But KMEX management insists that these warnings are premature because not all of the proposals have been heard.

“We have been diligently working toward presenting all of the station’s proposals to NABET,” KMEX General Manager Augustine Martinez said in a written statement. “Although all the issues necessary to reach an agreement have not been discussed, our goal is to continue working in good faith until an agreement that is satisfactory to all involved is reached.”

In addition to increased pay, NABET wants to preserve the workers’ paid lunch hour and be assured their responsibilities will not be parsed out to nonunion employees at the station.

Univision is seen in 83% of all Latino households, and in recent years has seen tremendous growth in profits. Just-released revenue figures for the quarter ending in March showed an increase of 32% to $181.5 million, up from $138 million one year ago, a Univision spokeswoman said Tuesday. In 1999, Univision reported an operating profit of $204.5 million, up 55.9% from $131.2 million in operating profit the previous year. The network had registered a 25.6% increase in profits in 1998.

Still, many employees at Univision’s affiliates nationwide are not paid as much as their colleagues who work at English-language networks, according to a contract database of NABET, which negotiates both English- and Spanish-language contracts around the country. Univision declined to discuss any contract specifics. That disparity in pay is true even for stations like KMEX, whose news programs draw more viewers than its English-language competitors.

KMEX’s 6 p.m. broadcast is No. 1 in the L.A. market, and its news reputation and ratings were such that in January the morning newsmagazine show was expanded by one hour. The morning show goes on the air at 5 a.m., making it the only early news show in Spanish in the market.

That KMEX viewership information, however, is tempered by the local landscape where just three Spanish-language stations here are the primary newscast options for Spanish-language audiences. That’s compared to six English-language networks, a couple of independent stations as well as multiple English-language cable news channels vying for roughly the same number of English-language viewers.

“I want a fair contract and an opportunity for our employees to share in the prosperity of the station,” said Leroy Jackson, technical operations coordinator, who assigns the crews for the evening productions. Jackson, who has been with KMEX for 11 years, earns $65,000, a salary he claims is lower than his colleagues at competing English-language stations. Univision again declined to comment.

“We want membership to move closer to market wages. We want parity with English-language workers,” Jackson said.

NABET Local 53 represents camera operators, technicians, studio coordinators and directors of news shows at KMEX. On-air talent is represented by a separate union, but that wasn’t the case at Univision’s Fresno affiliate, a smaller station where the localNABET chapter served as the only union presence, representing everyone from technicians to the station’s anchorman.

After months of protracted talks with management, eight Fresno newsroom employees went on a hunger strike. In the end, two members and the NABET negotiator remained on the fast for 43 days, until the new contract was ratified March 31.

The new contract raised some Fresno affiliate salaries by 40% and provided a paid lunch hour for some employees. That new contract has yet to be finalized.

Andres Leal, the longtime technical director and editor at KMEX, said the Fresno dispute showed him there are alternatives to walking the picket lines, such as the hunger strike, boycotts and candlelight vigils.

“The Fresno dispute gave us ideas,” said Leal, 49. “Most people think your only idea is to go on strike. They had a lot of other ideas, ways of being heard and protesting without giving up their job.”