IBEW Hits Grand Slam in Boston IBEW Teams with Child ID Program 4 a New Direction Reversing Course at Ark
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1893 Printed in the USA International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Vol. 11 | No. 8 | August 2017 IBEW News Play Ball ‘From Zero to 100 Percent’ IBEW saves Little League season 4 Preparing for the Unthinkable IBEW Hits Grand Slam in Boston IBEW teams with child ID program 4 A New Direction Reversing course at Ark. nuclear facility 5 Fighting for Medicare Retirees protest health law changes on Hill 5 Zombie Case Returns Fair share unfair to public sector workers 6 Undoing a Wrong Parliament kills onerous Canadian laws 6 Driving a Renaissance IBEW key to Motor City rebirth 20 Freelance broadcast technicians working at every Boston stadium, including Fenway Park, are now members of Boston Local 1228 after a successful four-year drive. In This Issue fter an unprecedented four-year organiz- five companies and, in April, a first contract was rat- ing drive, Boston Local 1228 successfully ified 98-8 with the final company to be organized. North of 49° 7 organized the entire market for sports BIG LEAGUE The success in Boston is part of the 20 percent broadcast technicians in New England. growth in the IBEW’s broadcast membership over Circuits 8 A It all started because someone laughed at the last five years. 9 Steve Katsos. BROADCASTS “This is a feat. This is big. To go from zero to 100 Transitions It was 1994 and Katsos was finishing up college percent union in such a short period of time and get Local Lines 10 and began freelance work as a field audio technician asked a co-worker, why am I making twice the money contracts is something we can all be proud of,” said in and around Boston, setting up the studio and field in the same building? IBEW’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Direc- In Memoriam 17 microphones and other equipment that capture the The $200 were union jobs, required by con- tor Martha Pultar. “As a Boston girl, I’m thrilled.” tracts signed by other technicians living in other cit- 18 sound of professional sports events. Editorials Katsos noticed something weird about the jobs. ies. It made no sense to Katsos. Letters to the Editor 19 He could set up the same equipment, in the same “So, I asked him, ‘How do we make ALL our ‘It was the Wild West’ stadium for the same sport but on some days, he shows union?’” Katsos said. “And the guy laughed Who We Are 19 made $100 and on others he made $200. So he and said, ‘Good luck.’” The deals cover the array of specialist positions It’s not that he was a bad guy, Katsos said, but including camera operators, font assistants, sound the laughter stuck with him. technicians, instant replay operators, assistant direc- “I didn’t understand why anyone would take tors, stage managers, graphic designers, technical half the money. But we did. For decades,” he said. directors and utilities. “But that laughter was like a seed that was planted.” The Boston area is home to five major league Now, 23 years later, every televised broadcast sports teams: the Bruins, Patriots, Revolution, Red with a ball or a puck, on grass, wood or ice in Boston, Sox and Celtics. They play 188 home games a year. is produced by the nearly 500 broadcast technician Local Division I colleges add about 100 more. Each members of Boston Local 1228. There have been five successful elections at BOSTON SPORTS BROADCASTS continued on page 2 WWW.IBEW.ORG 2 The Electrical Worker | August 2017 Continued from page 1 ‘From Zero to 100 Percent’ Boston Sports Broadcasts are Now All IBEW Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user s.yume needs a crew to get it on screen. Some- In the past, the people who owned the For years the editors, camera times the crew will be small, sometimes it rights to broadcast a game would employ operators, producers and sound will include dozens of people. the people who could do it. But now they techs put Bruins games on the air And until four years ago, Katsos employ a handful of salespeople and since without a contract. said, every job was paid differently. Peo- at least the ’80s, they have relied on an ple doing the same task — one for the army of freelancers to do the actual work. home team broadcast, one for the away — It made business sense. No sport could make different rates. Sometimes goes year-round, so why keep full-time Same crewer, hiring people with the same the $45 parking fee for Fenway was reim- employees on the books when your sport skills, for different rates. bursed, sometimes it wasn’t. isn’t running? For example, during long “Every job was different and you stretches of the summer, only the Sox and couldn’t negotiate anything,” Katsos “You work 80 games the Revolution are in season, but in early said. “It was the Wild West.” at $500 a game, that’s fall, nearly all of the teams are playing. A new kind of company stepped into $40,000. What other the gap: the crewer. A Nonunion Market in transaction worth Crewers have the giant rolodexes of One of the Most specialists that give modern sports pro- Unionized Cities have a show,” Katsos said. “Everyone or worse deal than anyone else. And we $40,000 would you do duction their look and sound. Some crew- was afraid and no one was talking.” said that to the workers too.” without a contract?” ers, like PPI, are enormous operations in America When Fischer and Ambrosio asked Anyone who had worked at least with locations across the country. Others, him to step up, something had shifted five days in the last year for PPI was eligi- – Neil Ambrosio, international like MJN Productions, are more mom-and- Four years ago, Boston Local 1228’s inside him. The seed, maybe. ble to vote and would form the bargaining representative pop operations, often in a single city. Fischer, then-Second District Internation- “I will put my neck out and I will risk unit. They collected cards, set a date for What the crewers working in union- al Vice President Frank Carroll and Pultar my career if I have to be the one screaming the vote, won the vote and by November “Every time there is a game, there is dense Boston all had in common in 2013 committed to changing that. from the mountaintops about how we 2014 they had a contract signed. a home feed and a visitor feed to wherev- was that their workforce was entirely non- “We started reaching out to the free- have been treated. I will make sure the They moved next on MJN produc- er they came from and, if there is a nation- union. Local TV stations were organized, lancers and asking them how they wanted difference will be me,” Katsos said. “This tions, which is also owned by a long- al broadcast, there is a third feed and all but the pool of about 400 sports broad- to proceed,” Fischer said. is not how I have been, this is how I am time IBEW member, Michael Nathan- of them need their own crew,” said Local cast technicians were not. They held meetings at locations now. No one will threaten me. I cannot be son. As with PPI, there was an election 1228 Business Manager Fletcher Fischer. “The crewer wields a lot of power,” around Boston. And they approached Kat- pressured. I will not be afraid.” followed by a first contract signed in The feeds are produced by compa- said Broadcasting International Represen- sos to help run the campaign. After a few rounds of conversations, November 2015. nies that bought the rights for the broad- tative Neil Ambrosio. “Home teams and After 20 years in the business, Katsos a strategy developed. The focus would not “We said to them that everyone cast. Comcast SportsNet New England, a away teams call them. You have to play nice basically knew all 400 people that would be be on individual crewing companies but on else working in the stadium has a con- subsidiary of NBCUniversal, owns the with everyone because you want to work.” eligible to join. And, more importantly, he the people who did the work. They would tract but you. The players, the coaches, broadcast rights for the Celtics. The Kraft Sometimes, the away team had understood what stood in their way. organize company by company, of course, the announcers, the ticket takers, the Sports Group owns the rights to distrib- signed a union contract with their local “Fear,” Katsos said. “Fear is a wall. but they would offer all of them essentially beer sellers. Why not you?” Ambrosio ute the Revolution, the MLS soccer team. production team requiring them to use Fear stops things from growing.” the same deal. And they would have a uni- said. “You work 80 games at $500 a New England Sports Network owns the union technicians on away games. That is For most of his career, even though fied message to every tech in the region. game, that’s $40,000. What other trans- rights for the Sox and the Bruins. where the $100 difference came from. he had been working without a union con- “Unity is what gives workers the action worth $40,000 would you do with- tract, Katsos had just been happy that freedom to negotiate good contracts, so out a contract? You do it because they tell this was his job. Something changed. He everyone matters and we need every- you it is normal, and for years freelancers was 23 years in and had no retirement, no one,” Pultar said.