PLEASE HELP GET JUSTICE FOR WORKERS AT KOIN-TV

KOIN TV was purchased by LIN Media in October of 2012 in a deal that brought the Rhode Island media company another 34 TV stations around the country.  It didn’t take long for LIN to start moving jobs out of Portland. On April 30th (after lying about when the decision would be made) LIN confirmed their plan to operate the station via “remote control” from out of the state in Indianapolis, Indiana.  This will mean the loss of jobs for 7 workers represented by NABET-CWA.  Technological change is normal for television engineers but eliminating good Portland jobs and sending the work out of the state is just plain wrong. To send a clear message to station management, please click here.

Not many TV stations nationwide are controlled from somewhere else.  But the 7 workers at KOIN (who have more than 125 years of service to the company) were not offered jobs in other parts of the station, nor were they told the truth by the General Manager, Tim Perry who was still saying as recently as April that more work would come to KOIN and they would operate other stations from here.   But the corporate decision was made last WINTER, they had NO Intention of keeping the work in Portland!

When the Union was told the decision had been made to eliminate the jobs, they wouldn’t tell us how soon the workers would be unemployed. And the offer they have made for severance is only half as much money as they agreed to pay workers at their station in Buffalo, New York when Lin Media decimated the station there. Portland has almost twice the viewers of Buffalo, NY. The management wants severance to be closer to what they paid in Youngstown, OH. A station that is less than one quarter the size of Portland. In television we compare ourselves by Markets (DMA’s)

Market            City                             Population                  % of US Population
   22                 Portland, OR               1,182,180                     1.035
   52                 Buffalo, NY                    632,150                     0.554
 110                Youngstown, OH             260,000                     0.228

No offense to our brothers and sisters in Buffalo or Youngstown, but they should not be the standard by which working conditions (or layoff provisions) should be measured in Portland!

What can you do?  Please click here to send the KOIN General Manager a letter and urge him to treat these workers with the respect that their years of service deserve. Let him know we respect people and their contributions – KOIN TV and LIN Media should act like good corporate citizens and treat these workers right ­- RESPECT their contributions!

You can also call General Manager Tim Perry:  (503) 464-0600 

For more information please contact:
Kathleen McCarthy  kcmccarthy@comcast.net   (503) 453-6170