TV Station's High-Paid Union-Busters Can't Break San Diego Local

A lively rally in San Diego on Monday celebrated Local 59054's big victory over KGTV's attempt to decertify the union, which has been fighting for a new contract since 2006. Speakers included NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce, pictured below.

NABET-CWA members in San Diego have beaten back a decertification campaign waged by KGTV and two union-busting firms that tried to pit workers against each other and break their will.

Instead, workers voted 17-9 to keep their union, which has been fighting for a new contract since 2006. The victory was announced Monday afternoon at a rally that drew scores of CWA members and leaders attending the District 9 conference in San Diego. See a video here.

"A big cheer went up," Local 59054 President Dennis Csillag. "Basically they spent $10 million over the last five years trying to break our union. I figure they paid about $1 million for each vote to try to decertify."

KGTV's engineers, technicians, directors, photographers, editors and artists have been NABET members since the station went on the air in 1953. The station has been owned by McGraw-Hill since 1972, and Csillag said the union and management had a long history of working well together.

But in 2006, KGTV began a fierce campaign of threats, intimidation, retaliation, captive audience meetings and other tactics straight from the union-busting playbook, leading the NLRB to find the company guilty of two unfair labor practice charges.

Adding insult to injury, the union learned that McGraw-Hill had compiled profiles of workers focusing on weaknesses that managers could exploit to get them to abandon the union. For instance, telling people with health problems that they could lose their medical benefits, or making older workers fearful that they'd lose their jobs and be unable to find new ones.

"The way we won was that the company ran a scare campaign and we ran a fact-based campaign," Csillag said, explaining that the local's frequently updated website and a second site, www.10NewsUnfair.com, were essential for members, as well as for building public support.

Speakers at Monday's late afternoon rally included CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill, District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp and NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce, who said, "The next 10News broadcast goes on the air at 5 p.m. and I've got the lead story for them: We're keeping the union right here and fighting for a fair contract."

No talks are scheduled yet, but KGTV employees haven't forgotten what General Manager Jeff Block said at a 2008 staff meeting: "It would be fruitless to negotiate a contract right now, but after the vote we can move on, regardless of the outcome." Csillag said the union and its many allies, "plan to hold him to his word."