Chicago City College's WKKC Radio
Workers Join IBEW
July 8, 2005
Broadcasting students who sit behind the microphone at City Colleges of Chicago WKKC (89.3 FM) are getting valuable experience in the trade and a dose of unionism from full-time employees who are new members of IBEW Local 1220.
WKKC was recently placed under the same management as the colleges' WYCC-TV 20, which was organized by the IBEW over 20 years ago. WYCC is one of two PBS stations in Chicago. The other, WTTW-TV 11 is also an IBEW shop.
Madeleine Monaco, assistant business manager of Chicago Local 1220, reports that TV station General Manager, Maria Moore, supported the effort to "fold radio station employees into the existing agreement." Monaco adds, "Our good relationship over the years was decisive."
The relationship, says Local 1220 Business Manager Ro Wratschko, is particularly important since collective bargaining at the colleges is covered by the Illinois Labor Relations Act, with requirements distinct from most agreements.
The new IBEW members work in maintenance, engineering and traffic at WKKC, a student radio station at Kennedy-King College, one of seven independently accredited colleges of Community College District 508.
With more broadcasting employees under union contract, Monaco has initiated discussions with college administrators on an "exciting" IBEW broadcasting apprenticeship program that can be "the link between the city college students and organized labor, encouraging them to become part of our union when they complete their degrees."
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