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SAG-AFTRA To Rally Outside L.A. Offices Of Spanish Broadcasting System, Escalating 3-Year Battle For First Contract

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SAG-AFTRA will be taking its three-year-long labor dispute with the Spanish Broadcasting System to the streets next week. The union says its members will rally at noon Thursday outside the Los Angeles offices of SBS radio stations Mega and La Raza to pressure the company into negotiating its first contract with the union.

“This event is to escalate pressure because after three years and over 100 bargaining sessions, union employees still do not have a first contract,” the union said. “SAG-AFTRA members will be calling on Spanish Broadcasting System to stop violating the law and to bargain in good faith and reach an agreement for a fair first contract with SAG-AFTRA.”

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In 2016, the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board certified the union as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of the stations’ hosts, announcers, DJs and other employees who regularly perform on-air services. “Since then,” the union says, “SBS has continued to violate federal law by engaging in over 100 separate unfair labor practices, including a refusal to bargain in good faith.”

Last month, Joanna Silverman, the NLRB’s acting regional director, issued a complaint and notice of hearing after determining that SBS “has been failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith” with the guild; “has been interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights” guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act, and “has been discriminating in regard to the terms or conditions of employment of its employees.”

The hearing will be held on March 30.

“We will continue to fight on behalf of our members for a fair first contract and will not rest until we have an agreement that is just,” SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris has said.

SBS has steadfastly denied the union’s allegations, accusing SAG-AFTRA of “resorting to blatant and transparent attempts at intimidating our company into accepting unfair contract demands.” SBS Chairman Raúl Alarcón Jr. has called the union’s allegations “totally false and malicious” and “an insult to the talented and professional on-air personnel the union claims to represent.”

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