Broadcast Workers Step Up WRC TV4 Boycott

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

With talks still stalled four months after their contract expired, NABET-CWA members at NBC-Universal are turning up the heat and asking viewers in four major cities – including Washington -- to turn off NBC and its local stations where members work. NABET 31, the DC-area local, is urging area union members and activists to sign cards pledging to "Turn Off NBC4" – the cards are available from Local 31 negotiator Richard McDermott: rcki@msn.com or call 202-841-6392. “We have been working without a contract since March,” McDermott tells Union City, “and negotiations have bogged down. A higher level of mobilization is now necessary.” The contract covers 2,500 workers; NBC is pushing to create a non-union job title for work that union members have been doing for decades. It also plans to close some operations in New York City and Burbank and transfer the work to a non-union facility in New Jersey.