IBEW Local 4 calls out St. Louis Alderwoman Cara Spencer for ignoring Channel 5 boycott

By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief

“Very disappointed” is how IBEW Local 4 Business Manager/Financial Secretary Mike Pendergast described the union’s reaction to St. Louis 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer’s recent decision to grant an exclusive interview to KSDK Channel 5 amid Local 4’s ongoing boycott of the station.

Spencer, normally a friend of Labor, received a letter on April 21 asking all aldermen to refrain from Channel 5 interviews while the boycott was underway. Despite this, she appeared on Channel 5’s “The Record” on June 8 to talk about her proposed gun legislation and a proposed water rate hike in the city.

“We are very disappointed with her,” Pendergast said.

Contract talks between IBEW Local 4 and KSDK Channel 5 broke off in May as the station refused to respond to the union’s effort to resolve their current contract issues.

The union’s current three-year pact with the station expired Jan. 31. After almost a dozen negotiating sessions in which Local 4 offered many options for concessions which the station ignored.

At stake are the jobs of St. Louis television and radio workers not only at Channel 5, but all other stations in the St. Louis market represented by Local 4.

Pendergast said the union made considerable concessions in its last contract to give the station “jurisdictional flexibility.” However, Tegna-KSDK failed to live up to its own concession not to use that flexibility to result in diminution (shrinking) of the bargaining unit.

LETTER SEEKING SUPPORT
Pendergast, on behalf of Local 4, sent the letter to Spencer and other St. Louis City officials in April asking them to honor the boycott in support of Local 4’s working families by refraining from granting exclusive interviews to Channel 5 while the boycott continues:

Dear Alderwoman Spencer,
On behalf of the membership of IBEW Local 4 I am writing to inform you of our on-going labor dispute with Tegna/Multimedia KSDK, Channel 5. Despite many days of negotiations, our Contract with KSDK expired on January 31, 2023, and, as a result, our members at KSDK have been working without an agreement and without wage increases.
KSDK has insisted that any new contract allow it to employ non-union sources for any and all video content and the editing of that content even though a neutral arbitrator selected though the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service ruled there were limitations on KSDK’s right to do so. No other local television station has the right to use non-union sources of content in the way demanded by KSDK. We have offered terms that would provide KSDK a great deal of flexibility to obtain video and audio content provided our approximately 30 members employed there received job security against the impact of their demands but KSDK has rejected our proposals.
We have asked consumers of local television news to turn off KSDK Channel 5 until we resolve our contractual dispute with the Station. Given our labor dispute with KSDK, we are requesting that you do not assist KSDK by providing them with video or audio content through interviews or other information that would be exclusive to KSDK.
Your support for the men and women who work for what will soon be the only commercial local news television broadcast station located in the City of Saint Louis will be much appreciated. If you have any questions, please contact me.