Seattle's local television stations have been keeping close tabs on the labor unrest in Wisconsin over the last two months. "Thousands Protest Anti-Union Bill in Wisconsin," reported KING 5 on February 17. "Wisconsin Labor Protestors Refuse to Quit," reported KIRO 7 on March 12. But there's a labor battle much closer to home that those stations haven't reported on at all.

According to a union that represents 76 video editors, engineers, and broadcast directors at KING and KIRO, the owners of those two television stations are quietly trying to take away their workers' freedom to engage in basic union activities such as striking, talking to the media about their grievances, and negotiating for better compensation.

"They are asking us to give up our rights," said Angela Marshall of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 46 (IBEW), which represents the KING and KIRO workers. "They want to strip us of the ability to strike for wages and benefits, or even have a say over our working conditions."

Executives at both stations did not respond to requests for comment on their negotiations with IBEW Local 46, but the union said talks have been under way since October, when contracts with the two stations expired, and that the stations are trying to force new contracts that essentially negate the power and purpose of collective bargaining.

Marshall added that IBEW workers, who make between $25.30 and $32.86 per hour at KIRO and between $16.05 and $29.92 per hour at KING, were too uncomfortable with the situation to even pose for a picture to accompany this article. "Everyone is kind of scared right now," she said.

The tension has been ratcheting up for some time. Behind closed doors at an IBEW membership meeting on February 22, every single KIRO employee voted to reject the company's contract offer, which involved demands that the union give up its ability to publicly protest working conditions, negotiate over work hours, or have a say in advance of any changes to health care plans.

"Here are the corporate television station owners in Seattle demanding that their workers sell out their right to strike," said Kathy Cummings, spokeswoman for the Washington State Labor Council. "I find that ridiculous. Historically, a strike is the only way a worker gets the attention of their employers. These workers have to protect their future, their families, and their working conditions. What power would they have left to defend themselves if they sell out this right? It is unconscionable that the employers would even ask."

At another meeting on March 28, the union members at KIRO made a counteroffer. They proposed wage concessions but refused to give in to limits on their future collective bargaining rights. KIRO negotiators rejected the proposal, canceled future bargaining sessions, and told the union they weren't willing to meet anymore, according to Marshall.

At KING, she said, negotiators for the station are demanding their executives be given the ability to institute wage freezes or furloughs—and make changes to the paid time off policy—without first consulting the union.

"When they were going through tough times, we agreed to a wage freeze," Marshall said. "That was not a problem." The problem, she said, is KING and KIRO's attempt to try to take away the union's future ability to do what a union does: protect its workers as best it can.

It's perplexing to Marshall to see such an aggressively antiunion stance from KING, which is owned by Belo Corp., and KIRO, which is owned by Cox Enterprises, when KOMO television, which is owned by Fisher Broadcasting, reached an agreement with its IBEW employees on March 21—without making any demands for limits on their future collective bargaining behavior. ("A great group" is how Jim Clayton, the station's general manager, described his IBEW workers, who make between $19.29 and $21.43 per hour.)

"And they offered us wage increases," Marshall said of KOMO, noting that the wage increase from that station is 3 percent a year, while KIRO, for example, "is offering 0 percent in the first two years, plus taking away our rights."

Will union workers at the two television stations strike over all this?

"We don't know," Marshall said. "We have to evaluate that."