As you know, the Company offered a $75 hazardous duty, which they called 'Premium Pay' but it was ONLY give to those employees who came into work. However, every Union was given the offer with strings attached. The company wanted to have a waiver during the time of the hazardous duty pay to have the Union not grieve violations on actions in that is our jurisdiction. The WRITTEN and SIGNED agreement ended June 16th. The company was repeatedly informed and a discussion with their Attorney was sought but there was no answer until June 15th.
Dennis and Nick met with Lew Leone twice on the 15th to discuss the end of the Premium Pay and to inform him that our contract would be back in full effect as of Tuesday, June 16th. Unfortunately the meetings did not result in a positive outcome.
The Company has chosen to violate our contract and continue to have talent stream live from their homes and have reporters record Zoom interviews at their desks at the station.
The Union had a conference call with the company on Wednesday, June 24th. It's abundantly clear, if it wasn't already, that the company does not care about blatantly violating our contract. Since June 16th we have been filing grievances everyday for the Co violating our agreement, specifically, reporters streaming live from home using our equipment and reporters recording Zoom interviews in the building at their desks.
Here are some choice comments made by their attorney when discussing the two violations:
"What damage is occuring to the Union?"
"Is the issue someone just pushing a button?"
"The Co is not agreeable to continuing to pay the $75 for all 794 Employees working in the building or in the field".
They were basically saying "what's the big deal". Our counter is why can't the Company ever hold up there end of any bargain?
We are not going to stand for this continued disrespect of our members and our contract.
We will be pursuing all legal recourse available to us, including filing NLRB charges. We have also informed the International.
******* Update from July 7th ***
The NLRB charges were filed on July 2nd. The President had a hearing with the NRLB boards which he has characterized as positive and productive. And, has been in communication with our sister Local in Washington DC.
