The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) is a labor union representing employees in television, radio, film, and media production. A division of the

Communications Workers of America The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States, representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors (also in Canada and Puerto Rico). The union has 27 l ...

(CWA), NABET represents about 12,000 workers organized into about 35

local union A local union (often shortened to local), in North America, or union branch (known as a lodge in some unions), in the United Kingdom and other countries, is a local branch (or chapter) of a usually national trade union. The terms used for sub-bran ...

s ("locals"). The union was first organized in 1934 as the Association of Technical Employees (ATE), at first covering employees involved in network television and radio; the union was created by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

as a way to prevent its own workers from joining the

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a trade union, labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electricity, electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, a ...

. The ATE would soon expand to other radio networks, and by 1937, ATE also included independent radio and television stations. In 1939 the ATE achieved a

union shop In labor law, a union shop, also known as a post-entry closed shop, is a form of a union security clause. Under this, the employer agrees to either only hire labor union members or to require that any new employees who are not already union me ...

clause. The union's name changed to NABET in 1940 and was affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1951. In 1952

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

radio, television and film workers were entered into the NABET fold. In 1965, NABET expanded to include workers in the film industry. In 1968, Canadian NABET locals achieved local autonomy followed in 1974 by full autonomy. These locals are affiliated with

Unifor Unifor is a general trade union in Canada and the largest private sector union in Canada. It was founded in 2013 as a merger of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions, and consists of 310,000 workers a ...

. In 1994, NABET merged with the CWA and changed its name to NABET-CWA. In 2021, NABET-CWA helped organize two units of tech and digital workers in

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's Digital Media, Communications, and Audience Growth divisions as a part of the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) initiative to organize tech workers in the US and Canada. Its current officers are Sector President Charles G. Braico and Sector Vice President Lou Marinaro, both elected on June 6, 2015.

References

External links

NABET official website
{{authority control Entertainment industry unions Communications Workers of America Trade unions established in 1934 Congress of Industrial Organizations 1934 establishments in the United States Online mass media companies of the United States

See also

References

External links