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November 4, 2011 NABET-CWA Commissioned Report Finds Growing Impact of Service Agreements on the Quality of Local TV News Local 42 in Cleveland turns out members to protest Ohio Governor's Push for Anti-Labor Legislation and to Mobilize at WKYC Local 41 Members in Chicago Hold Second Tri-Station Rally Effects Bargaining Held at KGTV as Sale to Scripps Marches Forward NABET-CWA Commissioned Report Finds Growing Impact of Service Agreements on the Quality of Local TV News A new report by the Center for Community Research and Service at the University of Delaware provides a critical look at the impact of shared services and news sharing agreements on local media markets. The report was filed on October 24, 2011 with the Federal Communications Commission to inform its review of media concentration and ownership in local markets in the hopes that regulatory oversight on these arrangements will be finally instituted. “Service agreements have resulted in a loss of diversity and localism at local news operations and have eliminated quality jobs for members and from their communities”, stated NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce in a press release issued when the report was filed. “Since 2000, a growing number of individual stations have entered into such agreements, with implications for diversity, competition and localism of local news and opinion. These are the fundamental principles the Federal Communications Commission follows in its regulation of the broadcast industry; this report is especially timely as the FCC is completing its 2010 Quadrennial Review of Broadcast Ownership Rules. To date, the studies commissioned by the FCC do not include a review of the impact of Local Marketing Agreements (LMA), Shared Services Agreements (SSA) or Joint Service Agreements (JSA) on local news broadcasts”, Joyce said. The report was partially commissioned by the Communications Workers of America at the request of President Joyce and TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer. Dr. Danilo Yanich, the report author, found that “the implementation of shared services and local management/marketing agreements had a profound effect on the local news broadcasts in the markets,” resulting in the broadcast of “a sizable proportion of stories on a combination of their stations.” Combining resources through these agreements resulted in a significant number of stations in the same markets using the same anchors, reporters, scripts and graphics. In Denver, for example, stations with service agreements shared the same script and graphics about two-thirds of the time. In Peoria, consumers, despite having five local news stations, were viewing identical stories on several channels. The combination of newsrooms also resulted in job losses. In Peoria, 30 WHOI employers were laid off and 16 were transferred to the NBC affiliate. Additionally, as part of this agreement between the two broadcasting corporations, 40 NABET-CWA represented employees were laid off in Syracuse. “Local television news still holds a pre-eminent position as a news source for the public,” said Dr. Yanich. While the movement toward shared services agreements undoubtedly will continue, stations retain public interest responsibilities as well, he said, adding that this research provides additional critical information as the FCC moves forward on media ownership decisions. President Joyce concluded, “The FCC needs to carefully consider the implications reported by Dr. Yanich. These arrangements are tantamount to unregulated broadcast ownership consolidation, which is neither beneficial for our members, nor for the communities in which these TV stations have licenses to serve in the public interest.” Read the University of Delaware study by clicking here. Local 42 in Cleveland turns out members to protest Ohio Governor's Push for Anti-Labor Legislation and to Mobilize at WKYC A video of these efforts can be seen by clicking here: With Election Day fast approaching on next Tuesday, NABET-CWA Local 42 has been front and center in the fight to defeat a proposed anti-collective bargaining law in Ohio while also drawing more public attention to the on-going labor dispute at WKYC, the Gannett owned station in Cleveland. The Local has also produced a video highlighting these efforts. Senate Bill 5 was the legislation creating the law stripping collective bargaining rights from Ohio's public workers. Voters can repeal it by voting "No" on Issue 2 on November 8's ballot. Local 42 recently took the opportunity to organize a protest against WKYC, as well as against Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is supporting the anti-worker bill, when the Governor appeared at the station to conduct an interview. NABET-CWA has been involved in an on-going labor dispute against WKYC-TV, the Gannett owned TV station in Cleveland. For nearly two years, the members of Local 42 have stood in solidarity after Gannett management implemented new terms and conditions at the station in early 2010. For several months, WKYC unit members, along with Local 42 officers and other members, have been busy hand billing the public at WKYC advertisers, and mobilizing at WKYC sponsored events and large public gatherings, such as Cleveland Indians baseball and Cleveland Browns football games. Earlier this year, the CWA Defense Fund allocated $50,000 to assist in these mobilization efforts. The recent rally at WKYC was aimed at demonstrating that both Governor Kasich and WKYC are bad news for workers. You can learn more about how to defeat Ohio’s anti-worker law by clicking here: As Tuesday’s vote on repealing SB 5 nears ever closer, support and public polls are encouraging. But with corporations and anti-union groups spending millions of dollars to stop the repeal, NABET-CWA Local 42 members and CWA members from District 4, and other campaign volunteers won't rest until the polls close Tuesday night. "Over the past year, Ohio citizens have spoken loud and clear that our elected officials should focus on creating good jobs and building strong communities, not attacking the rights of our public employees," CWA District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said. "This election will be the culmination of a year-long effort by a broad cross-section of Ohioans — from the tens of thousands who gathered at the state house, to the 1.3 million who signed our petition, to the tens of thousands who are now out talking to their friends and neighbors," he said. "CWA is putting everything we have into these last few days to win a victory on this important issue." Local 41 Members in Chicago Hold Second Tri-Station Rally In a show of solidarity, members of NABET-CWA Local 41 rallied and marched on October 27, 2011 for fair collective bargaining agreements at three of Chicago’s biggest local television stations. The union members are demanding respect for their work and years of dedication to Chicago’s local broadcast news. This rally was the second event of this type to be held by the Local within the past few months. A video on the tri-station rally : NABET-CWA Local 41 represents news photographers, videotape editors, technical directors, audio engineers, transmission operators, news producers, writers, assignment editors, graphic artists, desk and production assistants and broadcast engineers and technicians at ABC7, NBC5 and Fox32. The union members, while working for three different stations in Chicago’s competitive news market, joined their voices in a demonstration against an orchestrated campaign of economic attacks on working families by Big Media. Negotiations for new contracts have been underway at all three stations for many months. The NBC contract expired in 2009, while the ABC contract expired on March 31, 2011. FOX members have been working under a contract extension since March 31, 2011 as well. The rally and march began in front of ABC7/WLS-TV on State Street. Members then marched to Fox32/WFLD-TV on Michigan Avenue for another rally. The festivities concluded as the protestors assembled at NBC5/WMAQ-TV, across the Chicago River, for the third and final rally. Local 41 members were joined during these station visits by Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Bob Reiter, as well as by members from CWA 4250, Jobs With Justice, AFTRA, and IATSE. Effects Bargaining Held at KGTV as Sale to Scripps Marches Forward As Scripps executives continue to ask questions and learn more about the operations of the McGraw-Hill Broadcasting stations, NABET-CWA and KGTV met this week in San Diego for a round of bargaining over the effect the sale will have on represented employees. NABET-CWA President James Joyce presided over the talks along with Local 54 President Dennis Csillag and Vice President Robert Buchanan. KGTV was represented by attorney John Collins and Director of Technology Patrick Givans. General Manager Jeff Block was present for the start of the session. Related to the sale, Local 54 members have received a warm welcome from Local 44 via a Facebook posting from Local President Dan Tackett: "NABET-CWA Local 44 Cincinnati is happy to welcome our Brothers and Sisters from Local 54 in San Diego to the Scripps family!" Local 44 represents employees at WCPO-TV. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cleared the $212 million deal for Scripps to purchase the 9 McGraw-Hill stations, finding no antitrust issues. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which determines if the sale is in the public interest, closes its comment period on November 14. The FCC is expected to approve the deal. KGTV employees have been working without a contract since 2006 as McGraw-Hill carried out a failed attempt to bust the Union. Supporters continue to stage protests during 10News live reports and KGTV remains under a boycott by the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council and the California Labor Federation. More information about the KGTV labor dispute can be found at http://10newsunfair.com/ . About The NABET-CWA SIGNAL The Signal NABET-CWA is published by e-mail approximately every two weeks, or as events warrant, to deliver the latest NABET-CWA updates electronically. NABET-CWA members and Local Officers are encouraged to send in your stories (and pictures) for future editions of The Signal. All you have to do is email us at: SIGNAL@cwa-union.org If you received The Signal as part of a forwarded message- you can sign up to have this newsletter delivered directly to your inbox by clicking here: http://nabetcwa.org/pages/sign-up

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