NAB reports (Jan-Dec 1944)

on its part to agree to the schedule of fees requested by the Union, and incidental to this contention that this argument should not be considered by the Hearing Officer and the Board because it was not brought up in the negop tiations for a new contract, but was first raised during the hearing. , , , (2) That commercial announcements have already been a part of the regular staff duties of the announcers and that it would be “wrong in principle” to compensate for time in the case of “sustaining programs” (i.e., programs broadcast on a non-commercial basis, the costs of which are borne by the station) . (3) That the method of payment proposed by the Union is also “wrong in principle” because it bears no reasonable relation to the value of the work. (4) That WMAL is an independent station, and there¬ fore is not subject to the pattern that has been estab¬ lished by Washington stations owned by national broad¬ casting companies. (5) That the method, if introduced m the case of staff announcers, could be demanded by other employees. (6) That the Union’s plan would cause announcers to favor programs for which they were paid on an assigned fee basis to the detriment of sustained programs, and the management would be unable to maintain the degree of control over its employees that managerial functions neces¬ sitate it maintain. Mr. Montgomery, the Hearing Officer, then presents the following analysis of the main issues involved: “The Union has contended that paragraph 4 of Schedule I imposed upon the Company the obligation to agree to the method of payment proposed by the Union. This para¬ graph, as stated above, provided that nothing should pre¬ vent the parties ‘from negotiating minimum rates and conditions for the services of staff announcers in reading commercial copy ... but the AFRA (the Union) agrees that it will not require the Company, and that the Com¬ pany shall be under no obligation, to negotiate with the AFRA with respect to such minimum rates and conditions for stations WRC and WMAL until such time as AFRA shall have commenced bona fide negotiations of such miniF mum rates and conditions for stations in substantial com¬ petition with WRC and WMAL in the area in which it serves, it being understood that such area is Washington, D. C.’ Then follows a provision that subject to and in accordance with the foregoing, AFRA and the Company agree to negotiate such minimum rates and conditions in good faith. The Union called attention to the fact that the three stations agreed to be in substantial competition with WMAL (WRC, which was a twin station when the contract was negotiated in 1940, WTOP, and WOL) have entered into agreements with it which incorporate the scale of assigned commercial fees that the Union is re¬ questing of WMAL. The Union alleges obligation on the part of the Company to agree to the proposed schedule of fees. “The Company points out that it had attempted to nego¬ tiate ‘minimum rates and conditions’ for commercial fees after its competitors had commenced similar negotiations and that it negotiated in good faith. It calls attention, in substantiation of this position, to the fact that substan¬ tial agreement on all but assigned local commercials has been reached. The Company’s position is that the agree¬ ment ‘to negotiate minimum terms and conditions of em¬ ployment’ does not obligate it to agree to the particular scale requested by the Union for staff announcers assigned to local commercials.” He then states his conclusion that the Evening Star Broadcasting Company as successor to NBC which nego¬ tiated the March 1, 1940, contract is bound by the terms of the agreement which had been continued on an interim basis pending negotiations of a new contract, even though since August 1942 WMAL was operated as an entirely separate entity. He then says: “However, the agreement ‘to negotiate’ terms and condi¬ tions of employment after negotiations with stations in substantial competition had been started does not involve g obligation with reference to the specific character of said terms and conditions; and the fact that the schedule of fees proposed by the Union for its WMAL contract have KEEP SENDING NAB INFORMATION ON PERSONNEL IN ARMED FORCES Still another letter of appreciation has been received by NAB from the ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE. Information on officers and en¬ listed men with previous program as well as technical experience is proving especially help¬ ful in the selection and training of men for American Expeditionary Stations. Have you supplied NAB with information on every member of your staff, man or woman, now with the armed forces? Check the list again! Give us the complete radio background and present military address of each one. It will be a service to victory and in addition may provide the means for transferring many of radio's armed forces personnel to posts which suit them better and enable them to serve more effectively. Send the information to Willard D. Egolf, Assistant to the President, National As¬ sociation of Broadcasters, 1760 N Street, N. W., Washington 6, D. C. become a part of the terms and conditions of the contract of the Union in substantial competition does not obligate WMAL to accept these terms and conditions. The fact that the point of contractual obligation was not raised during negotiations does not appear to the Hearing Officer to be one of controlling importance since the point was discussed in . considerable detail by counsel and witnesses for both sides during the hearing. It is established that in spite of considerable delays caused by a variety of cir¬ cumstances negotiations were carried on, and the testimony does not establish absence of good faith on the part of either party during these negotiations. Accordingly, the old contract did not obligate the Company to accept the proposed scale. A phase of this aspect of the Union’s case to which the Hearing Officer believes attention should be called, and some weight attached, however, is the inclu¬ sion in the contract of steps for negotiations looking toward some uniformity of terms and conditions among the competing Washington radio stations.” In the summarization and conclusions the Hearing Of¬ ficer says: (The following is a substantial verbatim copy of the Hearing Officer’s report.) The Washington Area Pattern The four larger stations in Washington are WMAL, which is now a Blue Network affiliate, WRC, owned and operated by the National Broadcasting Company, WTOP, owned by the Columbia Broadcasting Company, and WOL, which is locally owned but is affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting Company. There are also two low powder stations (WWDC and WINX). The three larger stations cited by the Union as being the chief competitors of WMAL have signed contracts with the Union containing schedules of assigned commercial fees such as the Union requests of WMAL in this case, as had also, on the date of the hearing, one of the two smaller stations. The WTOP con¬ tract was signed prior to the time the United States be¬ came a participant in the war; the WRC contract in March, 1943, with approval of the Wage Stabilization Director, being dated August 19, 1943; and the WOL con¬ tract on September 1 of that year. The Union, on the basis of these facts asserts that fees for assigned commercial broadcasts have become the prevailing pattern in the Wash¬ ington area to which WMAL should conform. The Com¬ pany, on the other hand, has averred that there is no reason why it must conform to the pattern of the other Washington stations. Two of these, it has pointed out, April 28, 1944-137