Re: Entercom imposes contract on AFTRA

["Kevin Vahey" <k-vahey@attbi.com>]

I have been around long enough to see both sides of the union issue. I 
am still bitter that over 30 years ago my union IBEW 1228 honored an 
AFTRA picket and 2 years later refused to honor ours.

IBEW however far from blameless. I remember a young Jack Williams fresh 
from a non union station in Las Vegas hitting the stop button on a VTR 
and IBEW called a walkout. IBEW 30 years ago cared about 2 shops WHDH TV 
(WCVB) and WEEI AM. WEEI techs were the highest paid in the market as 
the rate was tied into WCBS. Channel 5 techs were well taken care of 
when the license transferred but the union could care less about 
4.7,9,38 and 56. 9 broke away first and WMUR management rewarded the 
staff and continued to do so until the Eaton family sold out.

At WBZ 1228 made concessions that at the time were staggering. Some 
genius at IBEW agreed that talent could operate anything without a VU 
meter. Suddenly VU less combo boards arrived.

Unions were guilty of featherbedding and I can not blame management for 
getting even. The all time union shop still was WCFL Chicago which had a 
seperate union to record carts. Course the station was owned by the 
Chicago Federation of Labor.