TV photographers vote to unionize

Alana Roberts

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 | 10:37 a.m.

Now that a group of 12 photographers at KTNV Channel 13 has voted to join a Hollywood, Calif.-based union in a National Labor Relations Board run-election Wednesday, the union has vowed to organize workers at the Las Vegas Valley's other television news stations.

The photographers voted to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 45 by a vote of 11 to 1, Michael Chavez, resident officer of the Las Vegas office of the NLRB, said.

The union represents about 2,500 technical workers at television and radio stations, in the recording industry and at cable companies throughout California, Rick Rogers, business representative of IBEW Local 45, said.

Now that the workers have joined the union, union officials can begin negotiating with the station's management for a contract, Rogers said.

"Our hope is that KTNV will bargain in good faith and quickly reach a contract agreement," Rogers said.

He said KTNV's photographers contacted the union six weeks ago after complaining to the station's management about scheduling problems and the lack of pay raises for the past two to three years. He said the scheduling problems were caused by the fact that station managers didn't replace four photographers who left their jobs at the station over the past two to three years.

"The more immediate problem was almost weekly and daily scheduling changes," Rogers said. "You're told an hour before you're scheduled, 'I need you to come in at a different time.' It created havoc -- not only for the workers, but for their families."

Rogers said the workers were paid time and a half for any overtime hours the photographers worked, as required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. However, he said the union plans to expand the conditions under which the workers will be entitled to time and a half and hopes to achieve double time pay for the workers through a new contract.

Jim Thomas, spokesman for KTNV owner Journal Broadcast Group, declined Wednesday to comment specifically on the complaints the photographers had about wages and schedules.

"It's time for us to let it work its course," Thomas said. "Then the company and the union can work together on whatever the results may be. Beyond that, any personnel issues we're unable to talk about."

Rogers characterized the conduct of the station's management as professional during the election, which took place between 8 and 8:30 a.m. and 7 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

However, he said, once managers at the station found out about the election they forced the workers to attend captive audience meetings and one-on-one meetings with managers to discuss the union's organizing efforts. Workers are required to attend such meetings on company time so that the company's managers can explain why the union is not beneficial to the workers, Rogers said.

"After the election was scheduled, they sat people down one on one and said, 'Give us time to solve the problems,' " Rogers said. "And the workers said, 'We've given you two to three years.' The problems weren't solved -- they got worse."

Rogers said IBEW Local 45 is also interested in organizing other technical workers at the station, including news editors, news writers and technical directors. The union also plans to target technical workers at other television stations in the Las Vegas Valley, including KVBC Channel 3, KVVU Fox 5 and KLAS Channel 8, Rogers said.

Representatives of those stations could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

"We're pretty confident (photojournalists at) the other three networks will want to organize," Rogers said Wednesday.