WKBN-TV, WYFX-TV Union set to vote on tentative pact

Union members would make a 20 percent health care premium copayment.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Thirty-five union workers at WKBN-TV and WYFX-TV, who've been off the job since Jan. 31, will begin returning to work Saturday if they ratify a tentative three-year agreement today, a union spokesman said.
The tentative agreement was reached shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, and the union members were scheduled to take a ratification vote at 10 a.m. today at the union hall, according to Joe Bell, spokesman for Local 47 of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians.
NABET, a division of the Communications Workers of America, represents news anchors, reporters, directors and photographers at the stations.
"This contract is not everything all of us hoped for, and that includes both union and management. We didn't get everything we wanted. Nobody did," Bell said. However, he added, "We think this is probably the most equitable solution for both sides."
Pay raises
The union's negotiating committee was recommending the membership ratify the tentative agreement, which called for pay increases of 2 percent immediately, 1 percent a year from now and 3 percent in the final year, and for an immediate increase in health care copayments from 7 percent to 20 percent of the premium, Bell said.
Employees would maintain the same level of health care benefits and receive an immediate $500 signing bonus, with job protection improvements, including some layoff protection, Bell said. The company also agreed not to contest the workers' claims for unemployment compensation, he added.
Before their contract expired at the end of January, union members were paid between $390 and $788 weekly, with some high-profile on-air personalities earning more.
Lockout
Union members said the company locked them out Jan. 31 after they rejected a company offer that called for an immediate increase in health care premium copayments from 7 percent to 26 percent. That offer would have raised the monthly copayments from $24 to $74 for single coverage and from $56 to $204 for family coverage.
The rejected offer also included a pay freeze in the first year and 2 percent pay increases in each of the second and third years.
Station operations have been maintained using management and union and nonunion employees not affected by the labor dispute.
A company spokesman said Thursday evening the company would not comment until after today's ratification vote. WKBN-TV and WFYX-TV are owned by Piedmont Communications, which is based in Charlotte, N.C.