In the face of a fierce anti-union campaign by KGW-TV, television news producers voted 17 to 3 to join an existing bargaining unit of newscast directors and broadcast engineers represented by IBEW Local 48. As the workers made their way into the TV station for the Feb. 19 vote, they were greeted by IBEW members and leaders holding signs welcoming them to the union and a gauntlet of contract security guards.
But Tegna, KGW’s parent company, hasn’t accepted the result, and is filing frivolous legal objections to delay union recognition, according to an attorney for the union.
“Take what employers normally do when trying to fight against the union, and crank it to 11,” said union attorney Dan Hutzenbiler.
To get in the way of 21 news producers joining the existing union, Tegna brought in lawyers from Boston for a multi-day National Labor Relations Board hearing and brought in company higher-ups to testify. KGW argued that news producers don’t belong in the same unit because they lack a “community of interest” with the news directors and engineers that they work with every day — even though they’re right now cross-training to use the same machines. Tegna also argued that news producers were managers and thus ineligible for the union. It was the legal equivalent of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. None of it stuck. The National Labor Relations Board rejected every one of the company’s arguments and ordered the election to proceed. Tegna lawyers then asked the NLRB to reconsider, even to hold off on the election. Again the NLRB said no.
KGW then barraged workers with anti-union propaganda. It sent anti-union letters to employees’ homes. Managers hand-delivered “vote no” letters to employees at work the day before the election. The company told workers that unionizing would prevent them from getting their annual merit increases, according to an NLRB charge the union filed Feb. 18 (it’s against federal labor law for an employer to make a statement like that.) On election day the company objected to union staff serving as election observers and deployed as many as six security guards.
“It was definitely an intimidation tactic for the voters,” said Local 48 business representative Tara McElligott. “Why else would you have a bunch of security guards in there?”
McElligott said it was the most aggressive and over-the-top anti-union campaign she’s seen in almost 20 years in the labor movement.
Despite that, news producers stood firm in their choice of union representation. Now the challenge will be to get the company to negotiate in good faith. Stay tuned.
KGW EXECS’ DARK ANTI-UNION HEART See the wheedling and disrespectful doublespeak KGW subjected workers to here.
