NBC10 and union agree on new contract, ending cameramen's strike
Camera operators and broadcast technicians who went on strike two days before Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia last month have reached an agreement with NBC10 and Telemundo62, ratifying a new four-year contract Friday.
Camera operators and broadcast technicians who went on strike two days before Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia last month have reached an agreement with NBC10 and Telemundo62, ratifying a new four-year contract Friday.
"We're glad the strike is over and we're all looking forward to working together as one team again," Ric Harris, president and general manager of NBC10 and Telemundo62, said in a statement Friday.
The 50 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers Local 98, had worked without a contract for more than a year before the walkout.
"This was truly a win-win for both parties," John Dougherty, IBEW Local 98's business manager, said in a statement. "NBC10 once again has its best-trained and most-skilled union photographers and technicians back in the fold, and just in time for the all-important November sweeps ratings period."
The contract includes wage increases, a ratification bonus, and some job protections, the company said, as well as "control-room flexibility for automated production control" operators, the company said.
The automated production control aspect of the contract had been a sticking point in negotiations, because the system automates some tasks that had been handled by IBEW members and involves non-IBEW members in other parts.
With the automation, two workers would be replaced with one employee in some circumstances, the company said.
During the strike, both sides played tough. The company hired freelancers to work the cameras during the pope's visit on Sept. 26 and 27.
The union applied pressure to NBC10's parent company, Comcast Corp., holding a news conference outside City Hall when Comcast officials were meeting inside with city officials to negotiate the company's cable-TV franchise renewal with the city.
IBEW also accused the station of breaching security during the pope's visit, when a station executive gave his media credential to one of the freelance camera operators. The operator later obtained his own credential, a union spokesman said in an interview earlier this month.
The union did not say whether it had secured the amnesty provision it sought in the contract to protect workers from retaliation for actions taken during the strike. A company source said there was no amnesty provision in the pact.
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