Tentative Agreement Reached at NBC

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)NABET-CWA has reached a tentative agreement with NBC Universal on a new contract covering some 2,500 broadcast technicians, newswriters, building, air conditioning and plant maintenance personnel, staging services personnel, and couriers at NBC News and NBC Sports operations in Washington, New York, Chicago and Burbank (CA). The proposed agreement includes a wage offer of 8% in increases over the next three years (2.75%, 2.75%, and 2.5%) beginning on April 1, 2012, in addition to a signing bonus. In the area of job security, the NABET-CWA negotiating committee says the new contract “provides numerous layoff protections for staff employees, and calls for the conversion of a number of daily hire positions into full-time staff positions” at each NBC office. The contract offer also extends the jurisdiction of the Master Agreement to the secondary digital channel operations of WNBC-TV, WRC-TV, WMAQ-TV, and KNBC-TV. NABET-CWA locals – including Local 31 in Washington – will be conducting ratification votes over the next few weeks.