KGW-TV photojournalists and editors say the station’s corporate owner is trying to undo hard-won agreements over staffing standards and union jurisdiction — a move workers worry could decrease the quality of reporting the community relies on.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 600 represents 21 workers at KGW, Portland’s NBC television affiliate. (KGW control room operators and technicians are represented by IBEW Local 48, and on-air workers are represented by SAG-AFTRA). Tegna, the station’s owner, is one of the largest broadcasters in the United States. Negotiations between Local 600 and Tegna didn’t begin until the day the contract expired March 21.

Tegna reported record profits of more than $630 million in 2022. But at the bargaining table, it’s offered raises of just 1% per year, said Jay Lundenberg, an editor and Local 600 member.

“What they are offering in terms of money is quite honestly insulting,” said Lundenberg, who has worked at the station for 28 years.

At most bargaining sessions, Tegna has effectively refused to discuss the union’s contract proposal unless Local 600 agrees to eliminate the contract’s minimum staffing requirements, Lundenberg said. The union agreed to those in 2017 in exchange for giving Tegna the right to use amateur video from members of the public. And the company is once again demanding elimination of the union jurisdiction clause, which says the union represents all station employees who do their kind of work. It’s a standard part of union contracts, and without it, the company could bring in non-union workers to do the same work as union members, but under different terms. Local 600 defended the clause for more than two years of bargaining between 2015 and 2017. The staffing minimums were the final compromise reached with the help of a federal mediator.

The station this year won eight regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital  News Association, including overall excellence, the highest achievement awarded. Union workers make that kind of award-winning journalism possible, Lundenberg said. Most of the IATSE members have worked at the station for 20 years or more, he said.

“If we allow them to make it easier to replace people with non-union workers … the standard of journalism will go down, and that’s a loss for the community.”

HOW TO HELP

IATSE Local 600 is sponsoring a petition asking Tegna executives to settle a fair contract with editors and photojournalists at the station.