WGBH/AEEF contract dispute – timeline
These excerpts from the news media are presented in reverse chronological order; most recent updates are at the top.
WGBH imposes rejected contract
From the Boston Globe — 3/16/2011
About 100 WGBH employees demonstrated outside the public broadcaster’s Brighton headquarters yesterday as managers implemented a contract rejected by its largest union.
Employees chanted, “Shame on you Channel 2, we expect more from you,’’ as they gathered to protest the proposed contract.
Workers at WGBH reject contract offer
From the Boston Globe — 3/14/2011
The largest union at WGBH voted yesterday to reject what the Boston public broadcaster’s management called its final contract offer.
The Association of Employees of the Educational Foundation, Communications Workers of America, Local 1300, which represents 280 WGBH writers, editors, production workers, and marketing employees, rejected management’s proposed three-year contract.
The final vote: 188 against the proposal, 15 in favor of it…
WGBH says offer to union is final
From the Boston Globe – 3/2/2011
The management of WGBH said yesterday that it has presented its last proposal for a new agreement with its largest union, halting contract talks that began in August…
Management has been seeking concessions that include cutting in half the company’s match for employee retirement plans and is demanding authority to redefine job descriptions. That would allow WGBH to assign employees to work across various media platforms, including TV, radio, and the Web.
Jeanne Hopkins, vice president of communications at WGBH, said that although the management offer is “our last proposal,’’ officials are still willing to talk. “We felt this was as far as we could go with our best thinking of what we could offer,’’ she said. “It is one that is open to them to respond to if they choose to, and we would welcome them back to continue to talk.’’
Union officials said they are willing to make some concessions to preserve jobs and WGBH’s financial health, including cuts in company contributions to retirement plans. But they are not willing to go along with such provisions as allowing WGBH to outsource work without negotiations, or to terminate on-air talent without cause. Union officials said they do not want WGBH to be able to assign members to perform work outside their job description…
Contractual issues
WGBH and its 280 CWA union members are definitely not on the same channel.
Union busting at WGBH? How will that play during Pledge Week?
Labor-management relations at the World’s Greatest Broadcast House are sinking quicker than PBS ratings. At the end of October, management declined to extend its contract with the 280 members of the Communications Workers of America Local 1300, and now seems bent on putting the pesky communards out of business. A federal mediator has been called in, and doesn’t seem to be helping. This isn’t Mr. Rogers’s neighborhood anymore.
WGBH asking for cuts as contract talks with largest union begin
From the Boston Globe – 8/19/2010
Officials at WGBH said yesterday that they began negotiations with the public broadcaster’s largest union seeking concessions that include cutting the company’s match for employee retirement plans in half, redefining job descriptions, and moving to a performance-based pay raise system.
WGBH has been in talks with the Association of Employees of the Educational Foundation, Local 1300 of the Communications Workers of America, a 300-member union of writers, editors, production workers, and marketing employees, to reach a new three-year agreement on the current contract that ends on Oct. 31.