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NABET-CWA Negotiators Search for ABC, NBC Answers

NABET-CWA negotiators this month are continuing to search for contracts with two of the nation’s top television networks — Disney/ABC and NBC.

At the Disney/ABC table, negotiators met Sept. 23 and then agreed to resume the talks on Oct. 1 "using a different approach" toward reaching an agreement to replace the contract that expired on March 31, 1997, the parties said in a joint statement.

The new approach will involve subcommittees consisting of three representatives from each side to work on the "outstanding issues separating the parties," NABET-CWA and Disney/ABC said in the joint statement, which also declared a news blackout on the talks.

Representing the union will be NABET-CWA President John Clark, NABET-CWA Network Coordinator John Krieger and CWA Representative Carmine Turchi.

Serving as a backdrop to the talks is a shareholder proposal submitted by CWA President Morton Bahr on behalf of the NABET-CWA sector for consideration at Disney’s 1999 shareholders’ meeting, as well as a scuffle between NABET-CWA members and private security guards during ABC’s coverage of "NFL Monday Night Football" on Sept. 21.

The Bahr shareholder proposal suggests that all future stock option grants to executives at Disney should be based on performance — rather than market fluctuations.

In a statement supporting the proposal, Bahr noted that the board in September 1996 gave Disney CEO Michael Eisner options to purchase 8 million shares of Disney stock valued at $196 million. Quoting compensation expert Graef Crystal, Bahr said that Eisner could gain as much as $771 million from exercising the options, assuming an 11 percent annual return over 10 years.

"Stock options are supposed to align the interests of management with those of the stockholders," Bahr noted. But, when the options number in the millions, a relatively small increase in the price could allow executives to reap tens of millions — even hundreds of millions — of dollars "without providing material benefits to the stockholders," Bahr said.

Recently, other leading companies such as Masco, DuPont, Monsanto and Bank of America have adopted performance-based stock option plans, Bahr noted.

Oftentimes, no matter how appealing a shareholder proposal may sound, managements are able to gather enough votes and proxies to bring about defeat.

A recent exception, however, came at Avondale Shipyards, where a series of union-backed corporate campaign issues found favor with shareholders. Later, AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department President John Meese characterized the result as "a major repudiation of Avondale CEO Al Bossier and his management." The NLRB has found Avondale guilty of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges surrounding a June 1993, union representation election and Bossier has spent millions of dollars in an effort to overturn the election.

Stadium Scuffle
The scuffle at the Giants stadium occurred when about 75 union members gathered outside the stadium’s press gate to protest ABC’s hiring of "shadow crews" — standby technicians who would take over in the event the network’s regular technicians walked off their jobs. New Jersey State Police Sgt. Matt Carroll said the incident was no more than a shoving match at a gate where the standby crews were congregating. One CWA member was arrested by the police. Coverage was not affected.

"It was intended to be peaceful, informational picketing," a union spokesman said, adding: "There was no intent for there to be any kind of conflict or confrontation. The dispute is with ABC/Disney; it’s not with the stadium or (New York) Giants or anyone else." An ABC spokeswoman told David Robb of the Hollywood Reporter that the protest "did not affect the NABET-represented crew, and our coverage was not affected."

ABC is spending between $75,000 and $100,000 to hire shadow crews — an expenditure that NABET-CWA considers wasteful — for each of this season’s 17 regularly scheduled "Monday Night Football" games. Millions more will be spent to staff shadow crews on college football games and golf tournaments.

"We do this," an ABC spokesman told Robb, "because NABET has threatened to disrupt live events, and they have disrupted live events. Live events are known as a ‘Perishable Product,’ and we have a legitimate and compelling obligation to protect them."

Last November, members of New York NABET-CWA Local 16 walked off their jobs in a 24-hour grievance that forced ABC to cancel its live coverage of the third round of the Tour Championship of Golf tournament in Houston.

Optimism at NBC
At NBC, where the contract doesn’t expire until next March 31, negotiators got off to a fast start, meeting for three days in mid-September, with more meetings scheduled to begin Oct. 14, according to Clark.

Krieger said the "limited-issue bargaining" sessions with NBC are aimed at achieving an early settlement, and that he felt "cautiously optimistic."

He said that the union had been assured by NBC executives that layoffs planned at the network will center on management employees.