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CNN Ordered to Rehire 110 Workers Fired for Belonging to a Union |
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This report likely won’t be on CNN’s “Headline News,” but after five years, former workers at CNN have finally gained justice. In a decision made public today, an administrative law judge ordered the network to rehire 110 workers who were fired because they were union members. CNN also was ordered to recognize the workers’ unions, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA (NABET-CWA) locals 31 and 11.
Judge Arthur Amchan found that CNN violated the rights of more than 250 employees at the network’s bureaus in Washington, D.C., and New York City when it ended its subcontract with Team Video Services (TVS), whose employees were represented by NABET-CWA. He also ruled that CNN discriminated against TVS employees who wanted to continue working at CNN’s bureaus to avoid having to recognize and bargain with the union.
Ed McEwan, president of Local 11, said the decision
is a victory for workers, but one that took far too long to achieve
because of our broken labor laws. Everyone in America should know that
the network management we rely on to bring us the news are not above the
illegal practices that they headline on a regular basis. From the very
beginning we promised our members that “we will not forget.” We didn’t,
and we’re keeping up the fight until fairness is fully won.
For more than 20 years, CNN subcontracted the technical work of broadcasting news and programming from its Washington, D.C., and New York bureaus to a series of subcontractors. The employees of these subcontractors, who were always represented by NABET-CWA, provided the video and sound for many of CNN’s most recognized programs, including “Larry King Live” and “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” But in 2003 and 2004, CNN terminated its deal with the last subcontractor, TVS, and announced that the network would hire its own employees to provide these services.
In his 169-page decision, Judge Amchan found that CNN and TVS were joint employers of the subcontractor’s employees and were obligated to recognize and bargain with NABET-CWA over the decision to terminate the subcontract, as well as the decision to hire new employees.
CNN’s new hiring scheme was a sham, Amchan ruled, one the network used to discriminate against TVS employees who belonged to NABET-CWA. He ordered the network to reinstate with full back pay more than 110 employees, to train those rehired, if necessary, and to recognize the unions in New York and Washington, D.C.
Local 31 President Carl Mayers says the workers deserve the credit for this victory:
It is a great victory for all union workers and would not have been possible without the hard work and courage of the members that were terminated by CNN as well as those that remained and never gave up hope.
5 Comments
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Let this be a lesson to all employers that the composition of the labor relations board will change and the employees will prevail. Collective bargaining is used by corporations to buy supplies at lower prices, but workers are not allowed to use it to improve their own pay and benefits. Workers must unite under organized labor and finally get the money they deserve. The companies are making plenty, just crying that they don’t have enough to give you a substantial raise, while they pay their top staff far more than they are worth. The only people who complain about the wages of union members are those who do not have access to a union or do not qualify. I have seen both sides of this issue and worked in both situations and would choose the union membership in a hearbeat. There should be no Right to Work states. Maybe the new administration will work toward this goal and those states who don’t want to participate can secede.
Maybe this nation may survive after all in spite of opposite predictions. If working people are represented, then the country will prosper. If not, the country will cease to exist.
So, if I understand this correctly, CNN, (probably the most in-your face espouser of liberal ideals on cable), has been practicing “do what I say, not what I do!” I’m appalled at this, but very gratified that their duplicity has been exposed. Brothers and sisters, let this be a lesson. Forget what you hear in the media, our only hope is organizing every worker we can, because all the enemies of labor are not clearly defined. This seems a good example of that.
I partly agree with you Krom. It may be a total improvement over that cesspool FOX but CNN isn’t much of an espouser of liberal ideals. Just because they have a few decent journalists and less angry putzes whining about reality doesn’t mean that their agenda is substantially different. They are totally biased and always parroting the republican party’s talking points. So I’m not appalled at all, I expect this from them.
While I believe that what CNN was illegal - and despicable - I think this article is very poorly written. It fails to present an objective point of view. The article doesn’t even quote the judge, but expects us to trust the interpretation of the author who is quite clearly pro-union.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying unions are a bad thing. On the contrary, I believe that they are an important tool for the working and middle class to be able to stand up to the wealthy. However, in this globalized economy the old union will only work if every one in the world is unionized and it costs the same to live everywhere. Because if they’re not, then corporations will simply move to countries where the workers have no rights because it is cheaper. That could lead to a whole host of problems, like global runaway inflation - which would devastate the already weakened economy.
In short, the old union is dying. We can no longer stand behind our numbers to hide our lack of skill or intellect. We must stand up and meet the demand that is being place upon us. We must - each one of us - become actors on the global stage. It is the only way we will survive.