KQED WORKERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE

KQED WORKERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE

San Francisco, Nov. 9, 2006 - Employees of Northern California Public Broadcasting -- formerly KQED, Inc. -- represented by the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians voted overwhelmingly to give their negotiating committee the authority to call a strike at meetings today.

“We have been working without a contract since October 24 and have been faced with a management unwilling to adopt any urgency in our negotiations,” said Kevin Wilson, President of NABET-CWA Local 51, which represents about half of NCPB’s employees in technical and non-technical units. “The willingness of our members to authorize a strike demonstrates their frustration at the slow pace of talks,” he continued.

Northern California Public Broadcasting is the organization formed by the merger of KQED, Inc., which operates KQED Public Television and Radio, and The KTEH Foundation, operator of KTEH Public Television in San Jose and KCAH Public Television on the Monterey Peninsula.

NABET- a sector of the Communication Workers of America has represented employees of KQED for 50 years.

“We recognize that we are in a rapidly changing communications landscape, but we don’t think this is an excuse for the relatively new management to jeopardize the excellent working conditions our members have enjoyed for half a century,” Wilson concluded.

No dates for further talks between the parties have been set at this time.