CWA Members Face Job Loss After House Votes to Kill Funding for Rural Broadcast and Local Public Media

Workers at NABET-CWA-represented public radio and television stations face an uncertain future after the House of Representatives voted to claw back previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The CPB provides critical financial support for vital public media stations in rural and underserved communities. Republican leaders in Congress have been eliminating programs that serve working people in order to fund tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.

“Public media is an essential public service—rooted in communities, staffed by committed workers, and trusted by millions,” said NABET-CWA President Charlie Braico. “If our stations go dark, communities like those impacted by Hurricane Helene lose not just lifesaving updates in an emergency, but also the daily community news and music from local musicians that weave communities together in these divided times.”

"Hundreds of thousands of CWA members would be impacted if the Senate votes to claw back funding for public radio and television," said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. "Hundreds of members' jobs would be at stake, and every CWA member would lose important news in their communities. CWA members need to quickly take two actions: call your senators and tell them to oppose public media cuts and become a sustaining donor to your local PBS and NPR stations."

Public media has broad, bipartisan support because it provides trusted information and reliable services for families across political parties, economic statuses, and zip codes. Communities count on it, not just for access to unbiased local news coverage, but also for emergency weather alerts, educational content, and public outreach services. During power outages or severe weather conditions, it is the local public media stations that are often the only line of communication for those in need of updates. The cuts put the survival of many public media stations in jeopardy.

The future of local public media funding now rests with the Senate. Click here to call your senators to tell them to full fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.