Television Industry Labor Relations

The strains of a nine-week lockout by Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television unit are beginning to show on members of NABET, the production and technical union whose members have been working without a contract for the last 21 months. At Burbank-based NABET Local 57, the union's second-largest local, some locked-out employees have started a petition campaign to force a vote--thus far barred by the union's leadership--on the company's latest contract proposal.

Ongoing labor strife between ABC and its technical employees is handicapping the network's news division in providing balanced coverage of congressional impeachment hearings regarding President Clinton, union officials maintained Tuesday. Top Democratic Party officials and staff generally have refused to appear on ABC News programs since early November, when the network decided to lock out more than 2,200 members of the National Assn.

About 2,200 behind-the-scenes employees at ABC, including 140 in Los Angeles, were locked out by the network on election day--one of the busiest and most technically demanding days of the year--and Vice President Al Gore canceled an interview with the network at the union's urging. ABC said it would use management employees and replacement workers to help deliver election night returns Tuesday. The National Assn.

About 2,200 off-camera employees of "Monday Night Football" and other ABC programs staged a one-day strike Monday, leading to technical glitches on news shows and a shutdown at two soap operas. The union members planned to return to work at 5 a.m. today, but ABC said they will be locked out until they promise to give the network warning of future strikes. "We cannot and will not allow our programming to be held hostage to sneak attacks by the union," ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover said.

A federal mediator on Thursday rejected a union's claim that ABC's lockout of 2,200 behind-the-scenes employees due to a labor dispute was illegal. Although the decision was a blow to the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, the union and ABC will return to the bargaining table today. NABET's camera operators, producers and editors have been working without a contract since March 31, 1997. They staged a one-day strike over health benefits on Nov.

Technical workers at ABC filed an unfair labor practice charge against the TV and radio network Wednesday for locking them out of their jobs, and they said a number of prominent politicians were honoring their picket lines. Their union said that in addition to the charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board in New York, the network had been forced to cancel high-profile "Good Morning America" location shoots scheduled for next week.

CBS Corp. acknowledged Monday that it had begun a round of expected layoffs as part of an industrywide belt-tightening by the ailing network TV business. The number of employees to leave could end up totaling 300, according to a CBS source. CBS President Mel Karmazin had told analysts recently that $70 million was being set aside to cover severance packages. The move puts CBS in line with the other two major networks, which also are slashing costs. Top-ranked NBC, owned by General Electric Co.

"Seinfeld" is offering a cliffhanger ending this season, just not the kind viewers will see. This particular plot, in fact, seems more suited to "Dallas" or "Dynasty," involving high-stakes corporate intrigue, drama and even a little suspense.

Brent Hershman, an assistant camera operator on "Pleasantville," a modestly budgeted comedy for New Line Cinema starring Oscar nominees Joan Allen and William H. Macy, had put in a grueling 19-hour day on the Long Beach set of the film. The father of two small children, Hershman was headed for his West Hills home about 2 a.m. on March 6, exhausted from the day of filming that had started at 6:30 a.m.