Dispute with TMJ4 goes to NLRB and the streets

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.milwaukeelabor.org/in_the_news/article.cfm?n_id=0054

By Dominique Paul Noth
Editor, Labor Press
On the eighth day of the eighth month in the eighth year of the new century (8.08.08), WTMJ wasn’t just broadcasting the opening of the Olympics -- it was vaulting its own management into competition for the Bad Boss gold medal.

That day, broadcast engineers, stagehands and other Journal Communications workers and sympathizers lined Capitol Drive in front of the WTMJ studios with banners asking “Trust TMJ4? If we can’t why should you?”


Rotating squads of workers Aug. 8 worked all day outside the Journal station


During the lunch hour of the all-day informational picketing and sympathetic solidarity, fully 7 out of 10 cars and trucks passing on the busy thoroughfare honked in support of the unions.

While the NBC affiliate was telling the story of the Beijing Olympics on the air, the Milwaukee workers were at least gaining street attention for a story unlikely to get play in the major print and media outlets the company controls and indeed dominates in Milwaukee. It’s hard to tell bad boss stories when your own boss has the veto, even though the experienced broadcast engineers you rely on continued to get your narrower preferences on the air. (Rival station Channel 12 did show up to continue it inroads in the TV market by doing local stories on workers.)


Drivers took the hint even when they didn't see the sign to honk in support of the engineers and stagehands.

The tale the public wasn’t told involves imperial unilateral action not by the Chinese government but by Journal Broadcast Group management. It created what the workers allege to federal authorities are clear violations of the law and, on any level, a “spit in the face” to dedicated workers.

The charges go beyond the unfair practices often filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Immediate injunctive relief is being sought by the lawyer for both unions involved, Mark Sweet.

Without commercial interruption, here is the unfolding story.

FULL story at link.