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Union threat upsets Schenectady store owner
Ad with WNYT prompts letter
Friday, December 28, 2007
By Kathleen Moore (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

Photographer: Peter R. Barber
Tom Lawrence, owner of Lennon's Irish Shop on Jay Street in Schenectady, holds up two letters from members of Channel 13's union Thursday.Tom Lawrence, owner of Lennon's Irish Shop on Jay Street in Schenectady, holds up two letters from members of Channel 13's union Thursday.

SCHENECTADY — A tiny Irish goods store has become entangled in the squabble between WNYT workers and their employer.
Workers negotiating a new contract at Channel 13 threatened Thursday to picket outside the new Lennon’s Irish Shop on Jay Street because the store owner paid for an ad on WNYT’s Web site. In a final warning letter, union members said they would stand outside the store and hand out fliers asking people not to patronize Lennon’s because it is “anti-union.”
The move infuriated owner Tom Lawrence, who opened the independent store on the pedestrian walkway this summer.
“It’s extortion,” he said. “How dare they do this? They’re trying to close down a mom-and-pop store that’s been here six months. I am livid.”
The union has already picketed outside several other businesses that refused to pull their ads in support of the workers’ effort to get a new contract. Workers are trying to get all advertisers to pull their ads as a way of forcing WNYT to offer a better deal in the contract negotiations, said Lou Swierzowski, mobilization chairman for Local 21 of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America.
So far, Price Chopper and the Gateway Diner have been picketed. Taft Furniture is the next target, and workers are trying to get a permit to picket despite the lack of a public sidewalk outside Huck Finn’s Warehouse, Swierzowski said.
“We’re not telling them not to advertise. There’s [local stations] 6, 10, 9, 23,” he said. “But please don’t participate in union-busting at Channel 13.”
The union is not striking but members launched a “turn off 13” campaign when their contract expired on Sept. 30. The tactic worked for the union in last year’s contract fight at Channel 6.
But it’s not winning over Lawrence.
“Isn’t this why unions have a bad reputation in this country, for these strong-arm tactics? I mean, what is this?” he said.
CONFLICTED POSITION

Swierzowski said reactions like Lawrence’s get an angry response from the union.
“Usually if someone calls back with a nasty message, they go to the top of the list,” he said.
But he added that he doesn’t want to picket small businesses — and in fact doesn’t feel comfortable picketing anywhere.
“We’re reporters. We never should be making the news,” he said. “We are conflicted over this whole issue. This is not the approach we wanted to take.”
He plans to hold a mobilization meeting on Sunday to “refocus” the campaign.
“I’m a little concerned by this whole situation. I don’t want anybody to take any ‘blue-collar’ action,” he said. “I’d rather work behind the scenes: phone calls, letters. I just think that goes hand-in-glove with the kind of business we’re in. And once all this ugliness is over, we’re going to want these people back.”
He plans to bring up Lawrence’s complaints at the meeting.
“I feel terrible for him. We’ll probably address it at our mobilization meeting on Sunday,” he said. “We don’t want to impact people who need this stuff for their essential business.”
Still, he said, business owners should pull their ads.
“They’re really helping an out-of-state company ruin the financial futures of 90 families,” he said.
The union is fighting a series of management proposals for the new contract, including the right to lay off 14 employees next year regardless of seniority and to replace them with part-timers who could work an unlimited number of hours each week. The current contract limits part-timers to 30 hours and requires management to lay off employees in reverse order of seniority.
The union has proposed extending the terms of the recently expired contract for another four years with 3 percent annual raises.
Stephen Baboulis, the station’s general manager, did not return a call seeking comment. He has previously declined to discuss the negotiations. The station is owned by Minnesota-based Hubbard Broadcasting.

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Channel 13 union discusses tactic of picketing advertisers

    The union representing Channel 13 employees met on Sunday to discuss whether to change its tactic of picketing merchants who advertise on the station’s Web site.
    The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America last week upset local merchant Tom Lawrence, who owns Lennon’s Irish Shop on Jay Street. The union said it would hand out fliers outside the store asking people not to patronize the shop because they say it is anti-union. They say that Lawrence has refused to pull his advertising on Channel 13’s Web site.
    Lawrence called the move “extortion” against a small independent business that has been in the city for six months.
    Lou Swierzowski, mobilization chairman for the union’s Local 21, on Sunday declined to comment on the meeting. He stated he did not want to run the risk of being misquoted again. He did not say what was inaccurate in a previous article and referred other questions to union President Bill Lambdin, who could not be reached for comment.
    Swierzowski said previously that he does not want to picket small businesses and is uncomfortable with making the news, rather than reporting the news. He scheduled the meeting to consider whether to “refocus” the campaign.
    The union has been working without a contract since Sept. 30. It opposes proposed changes by station owner Hubbard Broadcasting of Minnesota to lay off 14 employees next year regardless of seniority and to replace them with part-timers who could work an unlimited number of hours each week. The current contract limits parttimers to 30 hours and requires management to lay off employees in reverse order of seniority.

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TV union in same boat as small businessman

    Re Dec. 28 Gazette article, “Merchant: Threat from union is ‘extortion’ ”: When I started reading the article about the Channel 13 workers’ union threat to picket Tom Lawrence’s Irish imports store on Jay Street, I shared Mr. Lawrence’s indignation. But when I reached the end, and discovered what is at issue between the union and Channel 13’s Minnesota owners, I marveled that neither Mr. Lawrence nor the union apparently understands that small, independent specialty store owners and experienced, skilled workers threatened with the typical corporate ruthlessness of absentee owners, are really part of the same beleaguered minority that deserves the support of all who care about a decent society.
    I wish I had an ad to pull, and I wish I needed something Irish.
    WAYNE SOMERS
    Delanson

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CAPITAL REGION
Broadcasters push boycott on advertisers, but may get free drink
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com

    The pickets will go on.
    Broadcasters from WNYT will stick to their plan to march outside their company’s advertisers, no matter how small, and ask customers to boycott the businesses.
    The marches and handbilling will continue until Channel 13 agrees to a contract, said Bill Lambdin, president of local 21 of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America.
    Last weekend, union members considered the complaints of small business owner Tom Lawrence, who said it was “extortion” when the union threatened to tell his customers to stay away from his new business on Jay Street just because he refused to remove his WNYT Web site ad.
    But the union decided Lawrence deliberately placed himself in the middle of the conflict.
    “We’re handbilling people who are providing direct financial support,” Lambdin said. “That’s not really a third party — they’re actively taking a side. If they are advertising and providing revenue to the company, that encourages the company to continue in its path.”
    He urged Lawrence to advertise his Lennon’s Irish Shop in newspapers, on other television channels or on radio.
    “There are many other places to advertise,” he said.
    But Lawrence isn’t budging. Somehow — he says he had nothing to do with it — his ad has more than doubled in size and is now on the WNYT Web site’s main page.
    He said he will report the union to the National Labor Relations Board if members actually march outside his store.
    But he also plans to offer them a bit of Irish hospitality.
    “I’ll have Irish whiskey here for the picketers and I’ll keep them warm,” he said. “I’m going to be nicer to them than they are to me.”
    He added that he’s not opposed to unions, nor does he object to unions picketing outside their employer’s offices.
    “Where would the Irish be without unions?” he said. “But this is incredible. I’m a third party. The National Labor Relations Board told me it’s illegal to involve a third party.”
    NLRB officials declined to discuss the matter with a reporter, but cited a section of their lengthy Basic Guide to the National Labor Relations Act.
    That section says that “secondary” boycotts against third parties, or even the threat of a boycott, are prohibited.
    According to the guide, “A secondary boycott occurs if a union has a dispute with Company A and, in furtherance of that dispute, causes the employees of Company B to stop handling the products of Company A, or otherwise forces Company B to stop doing business with Company A.”
    Lambdin said that creating an uncrossable picket line is prohibited but that marching and passing out fliers outside an advertiser is allowed.
    “It’s a form of freedom of expression,” he said.
    He added that he doesn’t understand why Lawrence is so upset.
    “I don’t see where it’s all that horrible to do to anybody,” he said.
    But WNYT General Manager Steve Baboulis said the union’s hard-line stance is not helping it win supporters.
    “If anything, I think some of the small owners who are out there making a living are displeased with the union’s tactics,” he said, adding that the station has seen little loss in revenue.
    “It’s had really no impact,” he said.
    The union, however, says at least four advertisers have promised not to support the station until contract negotiations are completed: Stewart’s Shops, Clifton Park Dodge World Chrysler Jeep, Polsinello Fuels and Ellms Family Farm.
    As for the union membership’s conflicted thoughts about making the news instead of reporting on it, Lambdin said feelings are crystallizing as time goes on.
    “The general mood is, this is the 14th week. We have no contract. We have no negotiations scheduled. We are very, very unhappy,” he said. “We want to report news, we don’t want to make news — but on the other hand, if we do nothing to tell the public about this, when do you think we’ll get a contract? About the 12th of never.”

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“The general mood is, this is the 14th week. We have no contract. We have no negotiations scheduled. We are very, very unhappy,” he said. “We want to report news, we don’t want to make news — but on the other hand, if we do nothing to tell the public about this, when do you think we’ll get a contract? About the 12th of never.”

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Clarification
In Friday’s editions, a story about the contract dispute between broadcasters and WNYT inaccurately characterized what a union official said would be done to protest businesses that advertise with WNYT. They will stand in front of the stores and hand out fliers.

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WNYT workers wrong to target businesses

    Re Dec. 28 article, “Merchant: Threat from union is ‘extortion’”: WNYT union workers should not be given permits to demonstrate and hand out leaflets in front of businesses urging people not to patronize them , as they are not on strike.
    Why should they be allowed to impede the business of others when they are not willing to interrupt their own income fl ow? It seems to me that the union itself, by continuing to work without a contract, is the biggest enabler for WNYT to continue its course of action, which, according to the union, is anti-union.
    Shame on them for attempting to force on others what they are unwilling to accept themselves.
    PETE GIPP
    Princetown

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WNYT, union reach agreement on new contract
Thursday, April 3, 2008
By James Schlett (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

MENANDS — The union that urged Capital Region residents to “Turn off Channel 13” is singing a different tune now that its six-month contract standoff has reached a conclusion.

Members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technical-Communications Workers of America Local 21 ratified a four-year pact with television station WNYT on Wednesday night. The deal ends the bitter battle WNYT's organized news, engineering and production workers waged against the station and its Minnesota parent, Hubbard Broadcasting.

“We gave a little and the union gave a little, and we ended up with a compromise we could both live with,” WNYT General Manager Steve Baboulis said.

NABET-CWA emerged from the dispute with promises of annual raises, but more importantly, it got management to back away from its demand to lay off anyone in the bargaining unit, regardless of seniority.

In return, the union granted management more leniency in allowing managers and other workers to temporally fill in for unionized work. Baboulis said it was important for the station to obtain more flexibility in handling daily operations, especially at a time when television news stations are struggling to keep their edge with smaller staffs.

Although local union president Bill Lambdin said he does not foresee any layoffs at WNYT during the current contract, other stations have taken an ax to newsrooms. WTEN in Albany cut 10 newsroom jobs in January, and CBS News has started laying off 1,200 employees at stations it owns in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted. We were able to get the demands we found totally unacceptable withdrawn,” Lambdin said.