ABC 'Suits' Throw Snit, Pick Up Marbles, Go Home

Three days of bargaining became one in late June when ABC/Disney management abruptly walked away from the table with NABET-CWA negotiators, after the union rejected network executives' demand for "unconditional surrender."

"Unconditional surrender is all ABC/Disney will accept - and that's not going to happen," said NABET-CWA President John Clark in the wake of the company's walkout on June 23.

The union bargaining committee met with CWA President Morton Bahr for several hours to develop strategy on June 24, and then hundreds of union members staged a protest rally at noon at ABC's corporate headquarters in New York City.

The company had not come to negotiate, Clark told the demonstrators.

"Even if we agreed to company proposals in all other areas, there would still be no agreement unless we accepted the company's demands regarding five major issues," according to NABET-CWA Network Coordinator John Krieger.

He identified the five major areas as pension contributions, daily hires, new technology, health benefits and reduced wages and working conditions for union workers in the network's San Francisco franchise.

The contract talks also cover ABC employees in New York City, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles - 2,700 technicians and camera operators who have been working without a contract since March 31, 1997.

"Our only goal," Clark told participants in the protest rally, "remains an acceptable, ratifiable and fair agreement. NABET-CWA is open to negotiating on any and all items. We are here to bargain in good faith and hold no predetermined positions."

Union negotiators have been upset by ABC/Disney attempts to wrest more profits out of the pockets of the network's workforce.

They point out that Disney CEO and Chairman Michael Eisner had the richest single payday in corporate history last year when he pocketed $565 million - and that network executives are now in talks with Joe L. Albritton to buy eight TV stations, a deal valued at $900 million. In addition, union negotiators point out, the network has spent millions of dollars to secure rights to football telecasts and on "golden parachute" severance packages for executives.

On June 22, during a wide-ranging telephone news conference, Krieger told reporters, "ABC tosses money around like it was going out of style, yet wants to reduce pension costs" and accused management of wanting to "create a disposable workforce, something the union will not tolerate."

Clark pointed out that while the network "suits" talk about saving money, they are throwing away an estimated $11 million a year bringing in backup technicians to preserve live coverage, particularly at athletic and sporting events - a cost that would not be necessary if a new contract were in place.

Anthony Capitano, president of NABET-CWA Local 16 in New York City, a member of the bargaining committee, the largest local at the network, said his members took ABC from the days of radio, to black-and-white television and eventually to color television. Today, they are eager to learn new skills and bring in the digital age. "Our engineers want to be there to bring this company into the 21st Century," Capitano said. The June meetings in New York were the first between union and management since last November.

The scheduled talks had barely started on June 23, under auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS), when ABC Vice President/Labor Relations Jeffrey Ruthizer said the company would go "no further."