CNN Ordered to Rehire 110 Workers Fired for Belonging to a Union

This report likely won’t be on CNN’s “Headline News,” but after five
years, former workers at CNN have finally gained justice. In a decision
made public today, an administrative law judge ordered the network to
rehire 110 workers who were fired because they were union members. CNN
also was ordered to recognize the workers’ unions, National Association
of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA (NABET-CWA) [1] locals 31 and 11.

Judge Arthur Amchan found that CNN violated the rights of more than 250
employees at the network’s bureaus in Washington, D.C., and New York
City when it ended its subcontract with Team Video Services (TVS), whose
employees were represented by NABET-CWA. He also ruled that CNN
discriminated against TVS employees who wanted to continue working at
CNN’s bureaus to avoid having to recognize and bargain with the union.

Ed McEwan, president of Local 11, said the decision is a victory for
workers, but one that took far too long to achieve because of our broken
labor laws. Everyone in America should know that the network management
we rely on to bring us the news are not above the illegal practices that
they headline on a regular basis. From the very beginning we promised
our members that “we will not forget.” We didn’t, and we’re keeping up
the fight until fairness is fully won.

For more than 20 years, CNN subcontracted the technical work of
broadcasting news and programming from its Washington, D.C., and New
York bureaus to a series of subcontractors. The employees of these
subcontractors, who were always represented by NABET-CWA, provided the
video and sound for many of CNN’s most recognized programs, including
“Larry King Live” and “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” But in 2003 and 2004, CNN
terminated its deal with the last subcontractor, TVS, and announced that
the network would hire its own employees to provide these services.

In his 169-page decision, Judge Amchan found that CNN and TVS were joint
employers of the subcontractor’s employees and were obligated to
recognize and bargain with NABET-CWA over the decision to terminate the
subcontract, as well as the decision to hire new employees.

CNN’s new hiring scheme was a sham, Amchan ruled, one the network used
to discriminate against TVS employees who belonged to NABET-CWA. He
ordered the network to reinstate with full back pay more than 110
employees, to train those rehired, if necessary, and to recognize the
unions in New York and Washington, D.C.

Local 31 President Carl Mayers says the workers deserve the credit for
this victory:

It is a great victory for all union workers and would not have been
possible without the hard work and courage of the members that were
terminated by CNN as well as those that remained and never gave up hope.


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This is a result that may well have far-reaching ramifications for
corporations that try to bust unions by hiring "contractors" and using
them as employees.