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Indybay Feature

KQED WORKERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE

by Rick Santangelo
KQED management has quietly let the contract with NABET Local 51 expire on October 24th. There has been no effort on KQED management's part to work past 5PM on any day at the negotiation sessions. They have also canceled several meetings with no make-up dates offered. KQED NABET staff, (Radio & Television Engineers, Building Maintenance, Membership Department and Daily Hires among others) are wondering why Management is not willing to work to reach an agreement and find it surprising that they would allow the contract to expire.
Press Release

KQED WORKERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE

San Francisco, Nov. 9, 2006 - Employees of Northern California Public Broadcasting -- formerly KQED, Inc. -- represented by the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians voted overwhelmingly to give their negotiating committee the authority to call a strike at meetings today.

“We have been working without a contract since October 24 and have been faced with a management unwilling to adopt any urgency in our negotiations,” said Kevin Wilson, President of NABET-CWA Local 51, which represents about half of NCPB’s employees in technical and non-technical units. “The willingness of our members to authorize a strike demonstrates their frustration at the slow pace of talks,” he continued.

Northern California Public Broadcasting is the organization formed by the merger of KQED, Inc., which operates KQED Public Television and Radio, and The KTEH Foundation, operator of KTEH Public Television in San Jose and KCAH Public Television on the Monterey Peninsula.

NABET- a sector of the Communication Workers of America has represented employees of KQED for 50 years.

“We recognize that we are in a rapidly changing communications landscape, but we don’t think this is an excuse for the relatively new management to jeopardize the excellent working conditions our members have enjoyed for half a century,” Wilson concluded.

No dates for further talks between the parties have been set at this time.

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October 26, 2006, San Francisco

KQED could have set a standard for democratic public broadcasting. Instead money ruled and members actually voted to end their future input. Can you believe it?

Among many changes:

" Approximately 190,000 members of KQED were asked to vote on six types of articles and bylaws amendments during a three week voting period that ended October 25. The vote was the largest in KQED history both in terms of the number of ballots cast and the proportion of the membership that voted.

As part of this vote, members were asked to give up their voting rights in the future in order to save money on votes of this type and to allow the station to respond more quickly to opportunities that might arise. That change was approved by an overwhelming margin of more than two to one."

To understand the debate:

http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R610131000

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