Seventy-seven ABC Sports technicians "staged a one-day
grievance strike Saturday" at Champions Golf Club in
Houston, TX, according to David Barron of the HOUSTON
CHRONICLE. The 24-hour walkout forced ABC to "scrap" its
scheduled 2 1/2-hour live broadcast of the Tour Championship
on Saturday. The network instead replayed the third round
of the '95 Tour Championship to affils. Barron added that
ABC "did not offer an on-screen explanation to viewers" for
why they were watching a two-year-old event. The one-day
strike was caused by ABC's decision to suspend Mark Johnson,
an ABC employee and union shop steward in New York, who drew
a unflattering cartoon of Disney Chair Michael Eisner.
Union workers, based in N.Y., "had tried repeatedly over the
past six months to seek arbitration on Johnson's
suspension." Union officials had even "threatened to call
grievance strikes on other occasions," including prior
"Monday Night Football" telecasts. But, in those cases, the
"union backed away because ABC had a nonunion crew in place
to broadcast the game if the union technicians walked."
Anthony Capitano, President of the N.Y. local union, said
that the union "may take its grievance to other ABC-
broadcast events." ABC spokesperson Julie Hoover "could not
estimate the cost to ABC in terms of lost advertising
revenue." Anheuser-Busch and Mercedes-Benz were the primary
TV sponsors of the event (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 11/2). A-B and
Mercedes-Benz officials "could not be reached for comment"
(Jimmy Burch, FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 11/2).
