CNN (Cable News Network) has been ordered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today to rehire the workers they fired back in 2003, reaffirming the previous decision that the news network owned by the Turner Broadcasting System violated the rights of its unionized contract workers.
“These workers have waited far too long for this measure of justice to finally be delivered and have suffered far too much as the result of these unlawful activities,” said Jim Joyce, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) in a news release.
“CNN should finally do the right thing now and immediately comply with the orders of the National Labor Relations Board issued today.”
In a statement released by the board, CNN was ordered to ‘cease and desist’ from “discharging bargaining unit employees of Team Video Services (TVS) its joint employer and predecessor employer at the Washington, DC (DC) and New York,” “compensate the affected employees for the adverse tax consequences, if any, of receiving a lump-sum backpay awards,” or “if those jobs no longer exist, to substantially equivalent positions, without prejudice to their seniority or any other rights or privileges.”
CNN was also told to provide employees with whatever training the Respondent has provided since its termination of the contracts with TVS, and remove from its files any reference to the unlawful refusal to hire the employees” within 14 days.
As expected, the news network won’t go down without a fight. A company spokesman told Erik Wemple Blog that “CNN disagrees with the NLRB decision and we are evaluating our options.”
The fired employees have a long way to go though as Turner Broadcasting System recently announced a “voluntary buyout program for about 6% of its U.S.-based employees.”
"Given the current focus on reducing costs and prioritizing investments to maximize company performance, Turner will also undertake additional reductions in staffing," an internal memo said on August this year.
