The Writers Guild of America East says it has ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with Audacy’s WINS (1010 AM, 92.3 FM).
The agreement covers 30 employees who are part of the union there. The contract includes one compensation day per year for non-staff employees; a floating holiday for staff workers; potential commuter reimbursements for overnight shifts, additional shifts during a week, inclement weather and news emergencies; and no minimum call for upgraded shifts.
The three-year agreement also includes a minimum salary wave increase of 3% for the first year of the contract, and wage increases of 2.25% in the second and third year of the agreement. It also calls for pay increases for all news production assistants who are paid a weekly salary, with increases of up to 5.3% depending on their seniority.
In a statement, the Writers Guild of America East says the union and the company will continue to meet and discuss other provisions, including hazard pay. They will also discuss meal penalties should Audacy combine WINS with its other news station in the New York City market, WCBS (880 AM).
“This contract represents a very good deal for our members,” a spokesperson for the Writers Guild of America East said in a statement on Friday. “We achieved wage increases for all service aides, writers and editors, along with even greater wage improvements for news production assistants, with retroactivity to July when our old contract expired.”
The union said its agreement was also a win for freelance and contract employees, who have been awarded additional paid time off.
“We got a commitment from management to discuss certain other issues where we did not see eye-to-eye,” the spokesperson said. “All in all, the agreement is fair and we hope to work with management to further the issues we didn’t come to agreement on.”
The agreement with WINS comes after members at three other Audacy-owned stations — WCBS, WBBM (780 AM, 105.9 FM) in Chicago and KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) in Los Angeles — also reached new collective bargaining agreements.
