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Joint Drive Under Way at KABB-TV in San Antonio

December 2001 IBEW Journal

Employees at a San Antonio, Texas, television station have been waiting since spring for the opportunity to vote for IBEW representation.

IBEW Local 60 and the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council Organizing Committee joined forces early this year in an organizing drive at KABB-TV, Channel 29. The station, whose parent company is Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcasting Group, is a Fox affiliate.

Efforts by workers at KABB-TV to join the IBEW got underway nearly seven months ago. Together we have been house calling, picketing and attending organizing committee meetings with the TV station employees, said Local 60 Business Manager David H. Gonzalez in June of the joint IBEW/AFL-CIO campaign.

On April 21, Local 60 filed a petition requesting an election for 50 of the stations employees in a unit that includes anchors, reporters, engineers, producers, editors, photographers, master controllers and other technicians.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) representation election, originally scheduled for May 24, was delayed because of unfair labor practice charges and reports that management had threatened workers. No new election date had yet been set as of late October, said Gonzalez. The election petition has been appealed and re-appealed, and the issue remains before the NLRB.

Low wages are an important issue for the station employees. A San Antonio newspaper reported that most of the workers at the local Fox network affiliate have bachelors degrees and are making only $7 or $8 an hour.

In a 7 Days in June event last spring, the San Antonio AFL-CIO kicked off a week of action by hosting a June 11 hearing where political candidates and elected officials heard from workers struggling to win a voice on the job. One campaign highlighted was the effort by workers at KABB-TV to join IBEW Local 60. The following day, union and community leaders boarded the San Antonio Justice Bus and took the message to employers across the city, including KABB. Union members joined members of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the Neighborhood Alliance and the Mexican American Democrats.

A labor-wide picket at the television station on June 12 was one of the scheduled 7 Days in June activities, Local 60 Organizers Xavier R. Antu and Coy Rogers said.

The organizers expressed the locals appreciation to all the unions and other groups that turned out to support the picket line, including the following: Asbestos Workers Local 87, CWA Local 6143, IUE Local 780, Iron Workers Local 66, Letter Carriers Local 195, Laborers Local 1095, Musicians Local 25, IUOE Local 450, Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Local 142, Sheet Metal Workers Local 67, Teamsters Local 657, TWU Local 519 and the Retirees Council of the San Antonio AFL-CIO.

We also thank IBEW Seventh District International Representatives Norman Sachse and Jonathan Gardner, and Seventh District Organizer Ralph Merriweather for their support in this campaign, said Antu.

These are great examples of the kinds of activity and solidarity that are so important to send a message that all workers must have the freedom to join a union and to make their voices heard at the bargaining table, noted AFL-CIO Field Mobilization Department Director Marilyn G. Sneiderman.

Employees have been waiting since spring for the opportunity to vote for IBEW representation.

KABB-TV

Texas AFL-CIO