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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois is a major center for news | ||||||
| 3 | media; and
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| 4 | WHEREAS, The talent of the men and women who work in media | ||||||
| 5 | is recognized, in part, by fair pay and benefits; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, Chicago is the fourth-largest Spanish language | ||||||
| 7 | media market in the country; and
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| 8 | WHEREAS, As a result of the rapid growth of the Latino | ||||||
| 9 | population in Illinois, Spanish language media is becoming | ||||||
| 10 | increasingly important in our State; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, NBC, a subsidiary of General Electric, recognized | ||||||
| 12 | the national importance and economic strength of the Latino | ||||||
| 13 | community by its decision to purchase the Telemundo Television | ||||||
| 14 | Network and its fifteen owned and operated stations for $1.98 | ||||||
| 15 | billion in 2001; and
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| 16 | WHEREAS, NBC owns and operates WMAQ, its English language | ||||||
| 17 | outlet, and WSNS, the Telemundo Spanish language outlet in | ||||||
| 18 | Chicago; and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, NBC spent more than $10 million to create a single | ||||||
| 20 | newsroom for the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking | ||||||
| 21 | journalists in its employ; and
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| 22 | WHEREAS, NBC should treat its new Spanish-speaking | ||||||
| 23 | employees with the same professional respect as it extends to | ||||||
| 24 | its English language employees; and
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| 25 | WHEREAS, NBC should provide its Spanish language | ||||||
| 26 | broadcasters with the same level of comparable wages, benefits, | ||||||
| 27 | and working conditions as its English language newspersons; and
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| 1 | WHEREAS, The on-air newspersons at WSNS-TV Telemundo voted | ||||||
| 2 | for representation by the American Federation of Television and | ||||||
| 3 | Radio Artists, AFL-CIO (AFTRA) which represents more than 3,000 | ||||||
| 4 | performers and broadcasters in the State of Illinois, including | ||||||
| 5 | the 43 English-speaking journalists employed by NBC's WMAQ; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, This successful vote for union representation was | ||||||
| 7 | won after a hard fought campaign in which the support for the | ||||||
| 8 | Telemundo broadcasters by the WSNS viewing audience and Latino | ||||||
| 9 | community organizations throughout Chicago was critically | ||||||
| 10 | important; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, NBC/Telemundo and AFTRA have been negotiating for | ||||||
| 12 | a first contract for nearly two years with little progress; and
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| 13 | WHEREAS, NBC/Telemundo has not offered its | ||||||
| 14 | Spanish-speaking journalists wages, benefits, and working | ||||||
| 15 | conditions comparable to the terms it provides to its | ||||||
| 16 | English-speaking journalists on WMAQ even though they share | ||||||
| 17 | work and a newsroom; and
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| 18 | WHEREAS, After nearly two years, it is past time for | ||||||
| 19 | NBC/Telemundo to reach an overall collective bargaining | ||||||
| 20 | agreement that is fair to the Spanish-speaking journalists who | ||||||
| 21 | appear on WSNS; therefore, be it
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| 22 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 23 | NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 24 | by adoption of this resolution, the House of Representatives of | ||||||
| 25 | the State of Illinois urges NBC/Telemundo to meet with the | ||||||
| 26 | American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and | ||||||
| 27 | negotiate in good faith a contract for WSNS-TV Telemundo | ||||||
| 28 | broadcast journalists.
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