It’s the biggest settlement in the 84-year history of the National Labor Relations Board. CNN agreed Jan. 10 to pay $76 million to more than 300 broadcast technicians who were fired in 2003 when CNN ended its contract with a closely-managed unionized contractor as part of an elaborate scheme to get rid of the union. The fired technicians worked for CNN in Washington, D.C., and New York City and were the only union group at CNN. To avoid hiring more than half of them, which would have required CNN to bargain as a successor employer, CNN discriminated extensively against union member applicants.
The settlement came just before CNN hosted a Jan. 14 Democratic presidential debate at Drake University. NABET-CWA was threatening to picket the event, and Democratic contenders said they intended to honor the picket line.
[MORE: The NLRB’s 2014 decision and order goes into great detail about how CNN went about illegally busting the union. You can read it in its entirety here.]
