News

KQED: It’s time to Respect your workers

26 Apr, 2017

KQED: It’s time to Respect your workers and our contributions to your success.

We are the workers at KQED radio and television, represented by NABET‐CWA Local 51 and have been trying to negotiate a new contract with management for months. We have negotiated contracts every 3‐4 years with KQED for over 50 years – but this year seems to be different.

The problem is the new and far more corporate attitude of KQED labor relations towards collective bargaining. KQED is not broke….far from it – they have an annual budget of $70 million, which is met by donations from listeners and viewers like you, and a very small amount is received from the Federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

We contribute to KQED as technicians, graphic artists, producers, radio announcers and operators, stage managers, membership clerks (who process your contributions), and the people who clean and maintain the building.

In negotiations this time KQED management has presented proposals for subcontracting our work. Whether it is outsourcing the work of maintaining the building, having non‐union workers come into the studios to do our traditional technical work, or having supervisors do our work in the membership department...the philosophy is clear – no respect for the workers who built KQED.

Please help us by calling John Boland – CEO of KQED – and telling him to respect his workers and our contributions. We need our jobs and wages that make it possible to live in the Bay Area. Tell him to stop trying to force us to give away our work to outsiders and non‐union workers. Union busting is wrong and won’t be tolerated by listeners and viewers like you.