News Staffers, CBS Reach Tentative Deal
Unionized CBS News staffers who have been working under an expired contract for nearly three years reached a tentative labor agreement with the network, the Writers Guild of America said Wednesday.
The 500 effected employees who work in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago, in both TV and radio must vote on the contract. Positions covered by the contract range from desk assistant to producer, with average base salary between $20,000 and $70,000. The union urged its members to ratify the deal.
The preliminary deal struck between CBS and WGA will give the union staff raises of 3.5 percent annually plus a $3,700 contract bonus. The contract would run through April 1, 2010.
In reaching this agreement, CBS dropped its demand for a two-tiered pay scale that would have given less to local radio workers, and to assign nonunion staff certain writing duties currently reserved for union employees.
Photos: Writers Walk
In November, the employees had authorized their union leaders to call a national strike. The Democratic National Committee canceled a Dec. 10 debate scheduled to air on CBS because of the threat of a strike.
"We are gratified that a tentative agreement has been reached so that CBS and its valued WGA news employees can put this chapter behind us," CBS said in a statement.
"This is good news for newswriters," Patric Verrone, president of the WGA West, said, adding: "We ask CBS to come back to the table with the will to make a deal with striking film and television writers."