The Pac-12 Networks, which televise hundreds of athletic events for Pac-12 schools each year, have run into opposition from unions of technicians who claim that the wages and benefits the networks offer fall below industry-standard rates.
Members of the Bay Area branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees began a bannering campaign at the networks’ headquarters in San Francisco earlier this month to raise awareness about what they consider to be substandard wages and benefits that the networks offer their broadcast technicians.
Unlike other sports networks such as FOX Sports Networks and ESPN, the Pac-12 Networks hire workers for each event without negotiating a contract with a union. Broadcast technicians are hired as freelancers and paid an hourly wage. According to Dan Nicholson, the business representative of IATSE Local 119, the Pac-12 Networks hire union members only for positions that they deem most important, effectively shutting many union members out of employment with the networks.
“They can save money by hiring nonimportant people from outside the union,” Nicholson said. “That’s the problem we have with it.”
Local unions have been fighting the Pac-12 Networks since the networks’ launch in August 2012. IATSE announced a strike against the networks in December, but multiple negotiations between network representatives and IATSE 119, the union of Bay Area television broadcast studio employees, failed to produce a contract that the parties could agree to.
Kirk Reynolds, vice president of communications for the Pac-12 Networks, says the networks’ unusual structure puts them in a unique situation. Although he says the networks cannot offer benefits to freelancers on top of their hourly wage, they are provided compensation above the industry average in “the vast majority of positions.”
“We remain committed to open dialogue with union leadership,” said Reynolds in an email statement, “even as we remain steadfast in our commitment to the flexible model that has proven successful in our first year of operation.”
Nicholson said the networks’ unwillingness to offer traditional benefit packages has caused a stalemate.
“(The networks) told us we’re too expensive for them … We’re not drawing a line in the sand and saying we’re not willing to negotiate,” Nicholson said. “But we’re not willing to negotiate by saying these (technicians) can’t have healthcare and retirement packages. That’s where we draw the line in the sand.”
Derek Hirsch, an audio mixer and member of IATSE 119, said that because union workers tend to be more highly skilled, the quality of the Pac-12 Networks’ product suffers when union workers are blocked out.
“It’s really frustrating that we’ve done this work for decades and the Pac-12 decides not to hire us,” said Hirsch. “They don’t care so much about the quality of their broadcasts as much as the cost.”
Contact Chris Yoder at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.