member services

contract information

Site Map

Urgent -- Health Care Fight is NOW!

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

That's an outcome we just can't afford.

It is urgent that you read this message and that you, your local officers and stewards, and your members act NOW or Congress and the White House may adopt legislation that will tax our health care benefits.

Across CWA we have supported and worked for health care reform for 20 years.

We have always aimed high, focused on universal, affordable and fairly funded supplements to employer-based care. We have always been clear that we have sacrificed for our negotiated plans and reform should assist us in maintaining and improving coverage for our families and retirees.

Unfortunately, I must report that the excise tax on good health care plans that was included in the Senate, but not the House, version continues to move toward adoption unless CWA and our allies act NOW!

The Speaker of the House and at least 189 members have made it clear that they oppose the tax and the House version is funded progressively by taxing those in the top 1 percent as well as including an employer mandate for employers that do not provide even minimal health care coverage. But the Senate leadership is saying some version of the excise tax, which could affect nearly all of our plans, must be included in order to get the 60 votes needed to move the conference bill forward.

The CWA Executive Board is asking every steward to mobilize her or his workplace Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week to call House members with a simple and clear message:

"No Taxes on our health care plans. If our plans are hit with a 40 percent excise tax, we will never keep the health care we have and when we votedÊÊfor you that was your promise. We support the House version of reform, butÊcompromise with the Senate and White House cannot include taxing our plans."

This fight is NOW. The status seems to change by the hour and negotiations could be over as early as this weekend. CWAers like you have led this fight and we need to use every minute to make sure that we make a difference NOW in the final days of the House, Senate and White House negotiations.

In Solidarity,

Larry Cohen

President

2010-11 NABET-CWA (Sector)
Memorial Scholarship Award

• The scholarship is open to sons and daughters of active, retired, or deceased members.
• Applicants must be students in a high school class graduating in 2010.
• The award supplies $750.00 yearly for four years as a partial payment of tuition or other expenses to the school designated by the winner.
• Winners must maintain at least a C+ average, or equivalent, during their four years in college and must attend full time.

The return date for the preliminary applications is March 26, 2010.
All applications must be verified by the Local President, in the space provided before mailing to the Sector Office.

Instructions can be downloaded HERE.

Applications can be downloaded HERE.

Applications will also be available at the Local 16 office.
Deadline: March 26, 2010

Disney Scholars Now Accepting Applications

The Walt Disney Company Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 Disney Scholars program. The competition for 50 college tuition scholarships of up to $20,000 USD ($5,000 per year, over four years) to children of full-time permanent Disney Cast Members and employees, who are currently high school seniors (i.e. students in their final year of secondary school) and plan to attend an accredited, degree-granting, four-year college or university in the in the next academic year.

Applications will be accepted through February 16, 2010. Scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement, extracurricular activities, community service and demonstrated leadership. For more information about the Disney Scholars program, please search "2010 Scholars" on The Hub. The site provides program details and application information.

Applications are available now through the application deadline of February 16, 2010. If you have additional questions, please contact TWDC.Foundation@disney.com.

DISCLAIMER: This program is not sponsored by Local 16.

Draft of 2007-2011 NABET/ABC Master Agreement now available,
This document is subject to final revisions pending its execution, proofing, and printing.

LOOK
at some of our members throughout
ABC's History!!!

Citadel Radio Negotiations Bulletins

An open letter from Paul Vasquez

CWA brothers and sisters at AT&T need our support during their negotiations.

Please take a few minutes to sign an electronic petition at www.unionvoice.org/campaign/attdowhatsright

Then ask your family and friends to do the same.

This kind of support is what we have always been lacking. That was NABET's fault for not seeking the help of CWA during our negotiations. In addition to helping others, you should think of these actions as the beginning of our next negotiation process.

CWA had their Woman's Conference in St Louis in September. Local 16's Kathy Henry and Ann Schoen attended and brought back some photos of the event.

2009 CWA Women's Conference

Reminder: Our CWA local number is 51016

In Memoriam
Bob Bochart 12/24/2009

Local 16 Assistant Webmaster

NABET has been without a contract at KGTV-TV San Diego since 2006

Sign the Petition

To: The New President and Congress

I urge you to enact the Employee Free Choice Act immediately.

This crucial legislation will protect workers' freedom to choose a union and bargain, without management intimidation. Allowing more workers to freely join unions and bargain with their employers will help rebuild the middle class by expanding health care, improving retirement security and raising the standard of living for America's working families. My bargaining rights are worth working for and voting for!

CWA's Bottom Line?
Real Health Care Reform!
No Tax on Benefits!

The health care bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee this week would be a disaster for working families and retirees. CWA is continuing to work with the Obama administration, supporters in Congress, other unions and allies for real reform.

There are now three legislative proposals on health care. H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act, is the bill that best meets CWA's priorities:

• no tax on health care
• all employers must pay their fair share
• a public plan option
• protections for pre-Medicare retirees

The bill produced by the Senate HELP Committee makes some improvements but doesn't do enough on employer mandates, and the Senate Finance Committee bill would make our health care system worse, not better. The Senate now will take up those two versions to produce one bill. A new CWA report based on data from the Joint Committee on Taxation and an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice found that 40 percent of health care plans would be hit with the excise tax in just six years. The tax would hit middle income families, older workers and those in hazardous jobs especially hard, the report found.

"This is a tax on the middle class and will lead to even more cost shifting to workers," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "It is simply wrong to make those employers who already are paying, pay even more by hitting them with a 40 percent excise tax while not requiring anything from employers who don't provide health care to employees."

CWAers are continuing to call their Senators to tell them not to tax workers' health care and make all employers pay their fair share. For more information, go to www.healthcarevoices.org

 

WELCOME

To the website of NABET-CWA Local 16 (CWA Local 51016) New York City. The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) is the Broadcasting and Cable Sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Local 16 represents over 1200 workers at the ABC Television Network and WABC-TV divisions of the Walt Disney Company, WABC-AM, WPLJ-FM, ABC Radio Networks and also WOR-AM (New York) and KYW Radio (Philadelphia).

NABET-CWA also represents workers at four other ABC operations in Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco and dozens of local stations around the country.

BURST

Is planning for future New York AVID classes. We need to know how many members are interested and what their preferred schedules are. The classes are held over three consecutive days. Contact training at nabet16-dot-org. Click HERE for more info.

Local 16 will reimburse members in good standing who pass SBE Certification Exams for the cost of their first year's membership in the Society of Broadcast Engineers. Local 16 encourages its members to participate in this program to the maximum extent possible. Contact the Local 16 office if you have any questions.

LYNDA.COM
is a new benefit that has been added to the
CWA/NETT Academy program. It has exploded with participation in just the first four months.

Participating members have completed over 3,300 movies that comprise over 250 courses. The leading course titles are in Excel, Digital Video, Flash, Photoshop, After Effects, PHP, Visio and AVID Express.

Other courses available include Joomla, Twitter, Moodle, Final Cut, Premier, Dreamweaver and Groove.

CWA/NETT Academy is now offering members and their family access to hundreds of titles on Lynda.com as a complementary benefit of membership. Participants will get 2 weeks of access to the site and will be able to participate in any of the courses.

If you are interested we still have a few openings left. Please send an email to lynda@NABET16.

MAY 2009 LI Retiree Luncheon photos

NABET/NBC

CONTRACT
NEGOTIATIONS
HOTLINE

212-307-6508

CWA Reaches Tentative Agreement at AT&T Southwest

CWA District 6 and AT&T have reached a tentative four-year agreement covering 27,000 CWA-represented workers at AT&T Southwest.

The tentative agreement provides for wage increases of 11.5 percent and pension band increases of 8 percent over the contract's four-year term, with cost of living adjustments in the final year. The contract maintains quality health care for active and retired workers and includes new job security protections, among other gains. Read the details of the tentative settlement HERE

Note:

Our
CWA
Local #
is:

51016