The union that represents 44 broadcast engineers at Journal Broadcast Group’s WTMJ-TV, WTMJ-DT, WTMJ-AM and WKTI- FM is crying foul on the corporation’s efforts to negotinew contract for those workers.
At the end of April, while the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 715, AFL-CIO and Journal
Broadcast Group were in contract negotiations, the corporation posted
employment ads for engineering jobs, including chief engineers and all
other engineers at stations across the country. According to IBEW Local
715, the job postings occurred after the Journal had told the union
that it was going to “drastically” reduce the workforce.
On
May 9, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Journal
Broadcast Group with the National Labor Relations Board. Christopher
Albrecht, president of IBEW Local 715, said Journal Broadcast Group has
utilized questionable tactics to negotiate the new contract. The old
one expired at the end of February.
“The employer basically
came to the table with an entire list of takeaways, starting with all
of our jurisdiction,” Albrecht said. He said the corporation wants to
change previously agreed-to wage terms, remove seniority and
restructure jobs so that fewer employees would be covered by the union. Albrecht said the number of represented employees would be
reduced from 44 to 25 full- and part-time employees.
“They have not
given a real reason, other than the fact that they can save money by
using a non-union person,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht said that
unlike previous contract negotiations, the Journal Broadcast Group is
using an outside attorney and human resources specialist, instead of
inhouse labor relations managers and station management. He said the
IBEW and Journal-owned radio and TV stations have been negotiating
successfully for 70 years, but this round of negotiations is different.
“When we had bargained with them in the past, it had been
contentious, but we all had a goal to reach and in the end we reached
it,” Albrecht said. Anne Schepp, vice president of human resources for
Journal Broadcast Group, did not respond to the Shepherd’s requests to comment on this matter.
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