NABET Local 16

09/24/2025

NABET-CWA Statement on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Nexstar, and Sinclair

The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians–Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) released the following statement in response to Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s preemption of Jimmy Kimmel Live!:
This week, the American people learned how easily our right to freedom of speech can be silenced by consolidated media ownership in thrall to a president determined to consolidate his own power.
This coordinated attack on our First Amendment rights by the Trump administration and the media companies Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group has laid bare a simple truth: our democracy cannot afford to compromise on media consolidation. The federal cap on the number of stations a single company can own is a necessary protection for a free and fair democracy.
NABET-CWA is renewing our call on Congress to prevent the Trump administration from eliminating the existing standards for broadcast ownership. Our Constitutional right to freedom of speech is too precious to be left subject to the whims of corporate cowardice.
Jimmy Kimmel is back on air this week due to the power of the people – people who came together to boycott, protest, and demand that Disney-ABC resume production of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show. By refusing to carry the program, Nexstar and Sinclair have pitted narrow corporate interests against the values of all Americans who stand together for free speech. But by the power of the people, our freedoms will win.
Our union stands united with workers across broadcasting, journalism, telecommunications, and other industries that do the real work of facilitating the great American marketplace of ideas. We stand for the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of every worker who chooses to speak truth to power.

About CWA and NABET-CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields. The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians–Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) represents over 10,000 workers in broadcasting and related industries.

cwa-union.org

William Bores
President
NABET-CWA Local 16

04/04/2025

https://www.mobilize.us/handsoff/event/764261/?referring_vol=3868433&rname=Will&share_context=schedule-event-chaining-modal&share_medium=copy_link×lot=5236838

**Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them.** New York City is fighting back! They're taking everything they can get their hands on—our health care, our data, our jobs, our services—and daring the world to stop them. This is a crisis, and the time to act is now. 🚨 **On Sa...

01/20/2025

“We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

01/15/2025

New and improved!

01/14/2025

Local 16 has a new poster..............

10/29/2024

Distrokid Union Busting
As NABET-CWA Local 16 members were bargaining for their first contract with Kid Distro Holdings, LLC., the company announced that it would fire 37 of the 78 members of the bargaining unit and 5 of 7 members of the bargaining committee! This is Union-busting!

Please support our Union colleagues and email to the management of Distrokid. Thank you.

Distrokid Management
[email protected] - Phil Bauer, President
[email protected] - Brett Chance, VP of Operations
[email protected] - Jamie Henwood, Sr Quality Control Manager
[email protected] - Steve Kondracki, Sr Artists Relations Manager
[email protected] Jeanne Androli, QA Manager

Sample Email:
Phil Bauer,
Distrokid has announced its plan to fire 37 employees and replace them with outsourced workers in the Philippines. The artist community your company serves here in the U.S., singers, and songwriters, will now be represented by workers half a world away. Your company’s action is an assault on decent American-based jobs and the Union your employees are represented by. Distrokid has chosen to increase its profits by firing the very employees who have contributed to its notable profitability. I urge you to do the right thing and reconsider this decision before news of Distrokid’s assault on American workers spreads throughout the entertainment industry.
Sincerely,

09/11/2024

In memory of NABET-CWA Local 16 brother Don DiFranco, murdered by religious fanatics on this day in 2001. May we never forget.

07/31/2024

Bulletin
NABET-CWA/ABC-Disney
Washington DC

2025 ABC Master Agreement Update - Bulletin #1

July 31, 2024

NABET-CWA and ABC, Inc. announced today that the Union and the Company have extended the 2021-2025 Master Agreement through September 30, 2026. This contract extension will provide workers covered by this agreement with a total of 8.5% in base wage increases, across the 18-month period which begins April 1, 2025. Additionally, all the other terms of the 2021-2025 Master Agreement will remain in place through September 30, 2026, without any concessions to the Company. This unprecedented agreement was reached while the Union’s ABC Network Negotiating Committee held internal meetings in New York City last week. Those meetings were in preparation for the upcoming Master Agreement bargaining with ABC, which had been scheduled to commence on September 23, 2024.

Details of the extension agreement include:

● A 5% base wage scale increase for all Groups, in all Units, in all locations, effective on April 1, 2025.
● An additional 3.5% base wage scale increase for all Groups, in all Units, in all locations, effective on April 1, 2026.
● Both increases will be also applied to the daily hire travel-only day pay rates.
● Substantial increases to Flex Plan and 401(k) contributions for daily hires through both the reallocation of cash, as well as an overall $10 increase to the total amount of the payment in lieu of benefits, effective April 1, 2025, for every daily hire workday, including travel-only days.

The Union also proposed that these raises be applied to overscale rates. However, the Company was averse to that proposal. Improvements are still needed in this contract, but the benefits of this extension, particularly 8.5% in base wage increases, and the improvements to daily hire benefits and travel-only days, outweigh the delay in bargaining. The Master Agreement will now expire on September 30, 2026, with bargaining mandated to begin no later than April 1, 2026.
Use this link to access the executed extension agreement: 2024-2026 ABC Master Agreement Extension MOA (07.30.2024).pdf
The Union received great feedback in response to its pre-bargaining survey and appreciates the time and thought that members put into their answers. The Union received great ideas, many of which have been incorporated into the proposals which were being drafted for September 2024. That work will now be the foundation for negotiations in the spring of 2026. In the meantime, the Union’s leadership intends to use the extra time to focus on mobilizing members and building the power and solidarity that will carry us into the 2026 negotiations and beyond.

In Solidarity,

Your NABET-CWA-ABC Network Negotiating Committee
Local 16: William Bores, President; Jim Joyce, Vice-President
Local 31: Alex Staherski, Vice-President; Bantu Opiotennione, President
Local 41: Stephen Griswold, Region 4 Vice-President; Patrick Keating and Michael Johnson, WLS Shop Stewards; Gene Maxwell, Temporary Administrator
Local 51: Carrie Biggs-Adams, President; Brad Belstock, Vice-President
NABET-CWA Sector: Charlie Braico, NABET-CWA President and Chief Spokesperson;
Judi Chartier, General Counsel; Steve Rubbinaccio, Sports Agreement Coordinator;
Ron Gabalski, Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President

NABET-CWA
501 Third Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 434-1254
nabetcwa.org
[email protected]

06/03/2024

05/14/2024

Local 16's newest unit! DistroKid is a service for musicians that puts music into online stores & streaming services. 82 Employees have voted to join NABET-CWA Local 16!