IATSE Technicians Ratify Contract, End Strike Against Golf Channel

Great news for golf fans who like to see the golf ball in flight and hear players when they speak into microphones!

For Immediate Release:

IATSE Technicians Ratify Contract, End Strike Against Golf Channel

After More Than a Week on Strike, Golf Channel Technicians Will be Back to Work Thursday, Covered by a Contract for the First Time Since June 2017.

PALM SPRINGS, California -- More than 300 national freelance broadcast workers at the Golf Channel ended their strike Wednesday afternoon by ratifying their union contract with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

Broadcast workers in all crafts will receive wage increases, bringing them closer to industry standard rates, and increases in health care contributions from the employer. The Golf Channel also agreed to compensate workers who work long hours but don’t qualify for overtime when tournaments fall across two workweeks.

"This is a huge win for broadcast technicians working in the highly specialized world of golf programming," said Sandra England, Department Director of Broadcast for the IATSE. “Freelance workers standing together like this, supporting each other, it’s never happened before. All three broadcast unions stood in solidarity to send a powerful message – that there is a line where workers will say ‘No’ and back it up, and that nobody can take us for granted.”

“This is the power of solidarity,” said IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb. “Golf Channel technicians supported one another, and achieved something they could not have hoped for on their own. Everyone who works in sports broadcasting will benefit from this contract, because it raises the floor for all workers.”

Negotiated by the IATSE, the contract is the result an eleven-day strike that started after the Golf Channel ended nine months of negotiations, six months without a contract. Since the last contract expired on June 13, 2017, Golf Channel broadcast technicians have been working without a contract. Wages for technicians at Golf Channel, which is owned by Comcast- NBCUniversal, have been far below the standard wages paid by other sports broadcasters.

The 2-year contract, with health care contributions retroactive to the last contract’s expiration on June 13, 2017, was ratified in a three-day voting period that ended at 5pm Eastern January 24. All work conducted after January 24 will be under the full terms of the contract, including the newly negotiated wage and benefit contributions.