Channel 25 strikers await reply to offer By KATHY DAHLSTROM •Journal labor wrltor : * VIENNA TWP. — After a ; month on strike, Channel 25 (WEYI) workers are waiting for .‘management to reply to what ;they say is their final offer. ; ; "Employees feel this is the •bottom line," said Betty Harrison, [the union representative negoti ating the workers’ first UAW con tract. "It’s a healthy increase be cause the employees need it, but ;not so much the company can’t afford it.’’ Channel 25 General Manager [Robert A. Epstein has declined :■comment on the strike since it be gan June 18. Harrison said UAW Local 1811 sent its final wage offer to .the firm July 7 after resolving some non-economic issues dur ing bargaining July 2-3. It was the [first negotiating session since the ;strike began. IF ACCEPTED by manage ment, the offer would mean a 39 percent increase across the board for the employees. Harrison said .they now average about $5 an hour. She said management wanted to give bigger increases to low se niority employees than those with [longer tenure. But the union offer is based on seniority. , "That’s the way it should be and even our low seniority people agree," said Harrison, who held a [meeting Friday with unit mem bers. ; ; The National Labor Relations Weather reporter Pat Scott (left), of Flint, and maintenance man John Rodden, of Clio, walk the picket line at Channel 25. Board (NLRB) has scheduled a hearing Aug. 15 in Saginaw be fore an administrative law judge on UAW charges that Television Station Partners, which owns the CBS affiliate, has engaged in un fair labor practices. The local contends the station "has failed and refused to bar gain in good faith by pursuing a course of bargaining designed to delay or frustrate the (union) in its attempt to secure a collective bargaining agreement covering employees in the unit....’’ Workers voted Feb. 18 for UAW representation. Station management opposed the organ izing effort and an election was ordered by the NLRB. Harrison said along with wages, major contract issues still to be resolved include insurance benefits, overtime and overtime pay, discipline, discharge, man agement rights and a successor clause that would preserve work ers jobs if the station owners sell the operation. TELEVISION Station Part ners in April confirmed it had put the station, os well as three others in New York, Georgia and West Virginia, up for sale. The union negotiator said UAW Region 1C has sent out let ters to station advertisers "updat ing them on the situation.” "We wanted them to know about the strike and NLRB suit," Harrison said. "Channel 25 is being targeted as a scab station because it brought in people from the com pany’s other stations to do em ployees’ work. This is such a union town, I wouldn't think ad vertisers would want to do busi ness with them until this is re solved," she said. The 39 striking employees re ceive $100 a week in UAW strike benefits. American-made early Wednesday tic of seasonally of about vailed from earlier. dropped cent, July,