Posted by Bud on December 13, 2009 at 07:18:34:
WMAQ braces for boycott
December 11, 2009
BY LEW LAZARE | Sun-Times Columnist
As if NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 didn't have enough ratings-related problems already, the station now must contend with a boycott organized by local membership of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians. Among other things, the union has paid for bus boards that carry the message "NBC 5 is bad news for its workers. Turn off Channel 5," and it is encouraging all NABET members and union sympathizers to avoid watching the station.
"We don't comment on labor-related issues," said a WMAQ spokeswoman.
The union is not happy with the way WMAQ management has handled some 20 of its members. As of July 27, those 20 WMAQ staffers ceased to be part of the union and were technically reclassified as station management, exempt from union jurisdiction. Ray Taylor, Chicago-based president of NABET Local 41, said the 20 staffers were primarily writers and editors. After the 20 staffers exited the union, only 46 NABET members remained at WMAQ.
Taylor believes the move to change the status of a number of newsroom editors and newswriters is part of WMAQ's and parent NBC's efforts to cut operating costs. WMAQ undertook a massive restructuring of its newsroom earlier this year. The intended goal was to retrain existing staff and bring in new employees -- all of whom are now required to handle multiple newsroom functions, including story assignment, writing and editing.
In addition to the boycott of WMAQ, NABET has asked the National Labor Relations Board for a ruling on whether the decision to take those 20 staffers out of the union at WMAQ represents a legal transfer of work. Taylor said it is unclear when the NLRB will issue a ruling.
According to Taylor, over the years NABET has seen a precipitous drop in its membership at WMAQ, which at its peak in 1986, numbered some 300 employees who handled various production tasks in the WMAQ newsroom.
In recent months, WMAQ has seen the ratings for its all-important 10 p.m. local newscast erode, leaving the station in third place behind both CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 and leader ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.