NCI fires entire union work force in Burbank office
Work has been outsourced to other locations
By DAVE MCNARY
HOLLYWOOD -- The National Captioning Institute has fired the entire union work force of 16 captioning editors at its Burbank office following a lengthy battle over a new contract.
The editors and supporters picketed the Burbank offices Wednesday. Their union, Local 53 of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians -- Communications Workers of America, has filed unfair labor practice charges with the Natl. Labor Relations Board against NCI for alleged bad-faith bargaining.
NCI, based in Vienna, Va., refused to comment about the firings or the charges filed with the NLRB. Nonprofit org, which also has offices in Dallas and London, launched closed-captioning services in 1980.
Local 53 president Leroy Jackson said NCI took an aggressive tack when negotiations began last spring to replace the previous contract. He said company proposals included wage freezes, tripling and quadrupling of production expectations and wage concessions amounting to 58% of salary.
The editors were fired Jan. 31 after refusing NCI's "last, best and final" offer. Jackson said the work in the Burbank office has been outsourced to other locations. He also said NCI had singled out the workers in Burbank to absorb the impact of companywide problems.
"As a result we offered the logical and fair suggestion to spread any pain of corporate woes across all employees of NCI, not just our union workers in Burbank," he added. "The company responded that it would be too painful for Dallas and Virginia employees to absorb. Clearly, it must be too painful for overcompensated officers to absorb."
Well, that's more jobs being outsourced to "Jack Smith, somewhere in the midwest," when in fact it's Rajeev and he lives in Delhi. India now has the largest growing middle class in the world.
ReplyDeleteI personally have experienced outsourcing when I called Earthlink for help when installing my router. The Indian woman at the other end of the phone had a beautiful accent, but could not help me.
ReplyDeleteSo I was forced to read the manual, and installed the router myself.
Can you explain to me how the subhed “Look How the Union Helped These Workers” is actually applicable to the situation?
ReplyDeleteDid you read any of the coverage, like mine?
This is from Joe's blog (nice work)
ReplyDeleteOr, it is feared, they’ll use outside freelancers.
This is from my friend's blog regarding outsourcing:
To compete with China and India we must:
-Not go into a protectionist cocoon hiding behind tariffs
-Accept that commoditized factory jobs are gone and not coming back
-Focus on innovation, science, technology and education
-Spend less on defense and more on education
-Understand the opportunities inherent in globalization, not focus on paranoid dreams of lost sovereignty.
Right now, I am placing my bet on the kids from China and India.
His blog can be found at Skinny Legs and All
Hello Joe Clark,
ReplyDeleteYou have put together a very nice and informative blog.
Here at the Los Angeles Times, many of my co-workers are under the impression, a union contract carries with it, guarantee's.
Unfortunately, companies find ways around contracts, with the help of politician's they carry in their pockets.
It's a sad state of affairs the direction our country is headed.
Thank you for your comments Joe.
Ed