California Univision Station Wins Union Election

KABE employees celebrate their organizing win.

Workers at a Univision-owned TV station voted last week in favor of NABET-CWA representation.

Two units at KABE in Bakersfield, Calif., voted to join the union. The Engineering/Master Control/Production group voted 11-2, and the Clerical group voted 4-2.

"We are very happy that employees at Univision Bakersfield stood up with courage and conviction and said enough is enough, they are now going to have a voice in the workplace," said NABET-CWA Local 51 President Kevin Wilson.

Starting in August, it's been a tough campaign. Employees faced intimidation and immense pressuring during one-on-one meetings with managers. Univision even brought in a former NABET member, who is now in management, to dissuade employees from voting yes.

"They were really twisting arms," Wilson said. "They told a single mom that she was going to lose her benefits because negotiations would start with a blank page. She was pretty freaked out about that."

But when the woman's coworkers went to the National Labor Relations Board website to show her that it's illegal to threaten employees with the loss of benefits during an election, they found that KABE had blocked access to the website. "I'd never seen a company do that before," Wilson said.

Todd Thorpe, a production employee since 1989 with the station said, "I had heard that Univision didn't like unions and the company certainly proved this to be a difficult process. But we all stuck together and watched each other's backs and kept at it. The Union's leadership told us exactly what to expect from the company and we were well prepared for all of their tactics."

Employees will now be electing their bargaining committee and formulating their proposals in the coming weeks to provide fairness and justice in the workplace.