Toward A National Satellite Cable Television Channel for Labor
The Vision
A nationally-distributed, self-supporting, mixed-format, lively, diverse, entertaining and popular channel carrying daily news and events, public affairs, perspectives, celebrities and non-celebrities, products, images, stories and messages that promote debate, learning, involvement, and participation from and about American working families.
The Situation
Labor needs a voice on American television. Our presence on the number one image and information medium in America is negligible at best. Given television present corporate structure and the failure of calls for fairness and open access in the new telecommunications environments, prospects for an increase in labor presence on American television look bleak. It's time to rewrite the script, take the initiative and try something bold.
Reaching citizens with unbiased and positive news about labor issues and the concerns of working people is crucial to building the labor movement into the political and social force it should be in America. At times this seems like a hopeless task, with a small labor movement and a strong anti-labor bias in the media. Not surprisingly, as the labor movement gets stronger, the attacks on it get more vicious and it becomes even more crucial that we have access to some means of expressing our own beliefs and positions. But we are seeing a growing concentration of media outlets in fewer and fewer corporate (an hands. the deregulation of telecommunications, and the virtual end of community franchising of video providers as telephone companies, power companies, and others move into local market to provide video services.
Citizens are finding it increase-ingly difficult to have any input into their local news, and for union members this difficulty is compounded by the anti-labor bias or simple ignorance of news reporters and other media gatekeepers. Ten years from now (or less) the major cable companies will be permanently in
ed with the telephone companies, and a single wire will carry almost every conceivable type of communication into our homes. We are seeing the promise of interactivity and higher-quality programming reduced to armchair shopping decisions. Labor images on television may soon be even less visible and/or more distorted that they are now. We need to act decisively to lay the groundwork for a new image for labor in the twenty-first century.
The labor movement needs a national cable channel available to homes across the country. Our cable systems carry fundamentalist Christian channels, a conservative political channel, shopping channels and animal and golf channels why not a labor channel? With the new "500-channel universe" touted by cable conglomerates, why isn't just one of those channels dedicated to labor images and issues? Is it possible to have a mixed channel that includes labor programming along with a lively mix of other programming? Several progressive cable services have been in existence for several years with mixed success at best (Deep Dish, Free Speech TV, The Planet Channel). We would argue that a channel that is seen as marginal or alternative will not make it in today media environment.
We need a thoughtful, inclusive, imaginative approach to creating this new programming system. How can we guarantee its financial viability? How can we get to this admittedly ambitious vision? First, we need a pilot project to illustrate that it can be done; and we need the research conducted about the financial, technical, and creative elements that have to be brought together to launch it. Once we have both those things, we can move forward on implementing a plan for a national cable labor channel.
Understandably, the leadership of the labor movement is concerned about putting its limited resources into projects that offer no guarantee of message discipline. We also need to learn from those earlier, very important experiments in national labor programming in the 1980s with LIPA and the cable project Cableline. We need a proposal that starts on a limited scale, is low-risk, and takes advantage of many of the impressive resources we actually have in place.
The Pilot Project
The project outlined below is a pilot project that will provide the basis for a decision to expand to a national programming system at a later date. This project would place on local cable access systems around the U.S. a two-hour monthly block of programs consisting of labor news and public affairs, documentary and entertainment coordinated by the AFL-CIO. After two years of this pilot program, a decision would be made to disband, expand, or launch plans for a full channel to be distributed nationally via satellite to local cable systems. Several factors are already in place that make this project feasible.
1. Communities all over the United States have cable systems with local public and educational access channels. Federal law requires that cable systems set aside channels for public use, and in almost all large cities, cable access channels are already in use by local citizens.
2. In over 30 cities around the country, access systems already have labor programs running on a regular basis. Rhode Island, Arkansas, Connecticut, and Minnesota all have programs produced by their state labor movements and sent out over multiple cable systems on statewide or near-statewide basis. Many other states have long-running cable access programs produced by local union members and supporters in major cities, and many producers are sharing pro-grams and resources.
3. Affiliate unions have storehouses of excellent programming that has had very little exposure, and several unions have on-going video production and could assist in producing whatever amount of original programming the project requires.
4. Local central labor bodies in cities who are interested in participating in the project can provide the initial contacts. This project will make available two hours of high-quality programming each month to all central labor bodies chosen for the project.
5. Satellite time is not unreasonable in cost, and is increasingly available to access centers around the country, either through their local cable providers or educational or governmental entities.
We could start very small by choosing 16 cities (four in each region) with active central labor councils and activist, community-run access centers.. Each central labor council will be assisted in setting up agreements with their local cable channels to schedule and promote the programming, either as a two hour block, or scattered throughout the month, with repeats if possible. While the project may eventually send out programming by satellite, until there are a significant number of cities signed on, it will be more efficient to send programming out by UPS.
Why Use Public Access?
Labor programs on cable public access in a community give the local labor unions a face, a voice, and an identity. Pro-grams like "Cavanaugh's Corner" in Maine, Chicago's "Labor Beat", and "St. Louis LaborVision" discuss issues of importance to working people. They publicize labor events, celebrations, concerns, and legislative agendas. They report news from the perspective of working people (Why is "economic news" only "Wall Street Week"?). They promote pro-labor political candidates, and educate members and non-members about the contributions of un-ions, and about labor history. Local access programs aid in organizing drives, and strengthen community support for labor's positions.
In addition, labor access producers report that local mainstream media sit up and take more notice of labor issues (Appendix C) in a commu-nity when labor access programs appear regularly on cable. These programs are rare and invaluable tools for promoting labor's agenda. Several local access programs have succeeded as limited series on PBS such as "We Do the Work" and "ShopTalk," both produced from the West coast. Unfortunately, the PBS systems in many states, under increasing control by corporate money, and with dwindling public funding, have balked at broadcasting these labor offerings.
But does anyone watch public access? This is always the question when the subject of public access TV comes up. The commercial mass media have done a successful job of portraying access as simply a place for local eccentrics to gain exposure. But research has proven that access programming can be extremely successful in building an audience when programs are regular, and when they are promoted among their targeted audience. If union members know the labor show is coming on the same time every week, they will watch it. If they receive notice in their union newsletters and plant leaflets about upcoming topics, and if their own communities and issues are featured, they will watch. If they feel like they need to hear labor view on an important national issue, they will watch.
Programming
This project will provide a two-hour monthly block of programming which will include:
1. One half-hour original news magazine, to follow a "McNeill/Lehrer format with a mix of short documentary, news briefs and an in-depth discussion of one issue of importance to the labor movement and its supporters. Jim Hightower and Janine Jackson (FAIR) have agreed to host the first of these news magazines, which will be produced by Minnesota At Work executive producer Howard Kling.
2. One half hour of the best labor access program or affiliate-produced program from somewhere in the country covering an issue or event of major importance to working people (e.g. the tape from the Teamstersí UPS picket lines is one example of the type of program that could be shown here).
3. One hour labor history film (already produced or part of an affiliateäã library (e.g. the history of an affiliate union, the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, Rosie the Riveter, The Uprising of 4, etc.) introduced and put in context by a labor leader from one of the sponsoring unions.
Programming can ini-tially be imported from other labor access programs, such as "Labor at the Cross-roads" out of Hunter College in New York City, "Minnesota At Work," and "St. Louis LaborVision" in Missouri. As more locals and unions are in-volved, programming generated from different sites will be incorporated into the program format. The goal will be to provide at least one professionally produced documentary segment each month on a labor struggle somewhere in each region.
Marketing
Marketing consists of three components: marketing the initial project to unions, labor councils and other potential supporters and participants, marketing the labor programs to local areas to build the viewing audiences, and marketing the concept and series to the national media so that public awareness will be high, which will assist in the other two kinds of marketing.
A sophisticated video presentation will be prepared and used to recruit local central labor bodies to be involved in the pilot. There are already union members who produce or facilitate labor shows on access in several major cities who would be eager to see labor programming coordinated and promoted. One we have recruited the central labor councils, the project coordinator will visit each local area to help them sign up with their local cable systems to get the channel time, and orient them on how to promote the programming at a regular time. Publicity materials for the programs will be produced centrally that can be customized to each individual area.
For those areas where labor has not been using access, it is usually relatively simple to sign up for channel time if the citizen is persistent and knowledgeable. The project coordinator will investigate the policies of the cable sys-tems governing the local access channel in each of these communi-ties and find out about acquiring channel time. Most channels require a local resident to apply to put a program on the access channel. The project coordinator will work with a designated group of interested union members from each labor council to set up regular channel time, and to make sure the weekly series is provided to the access center for playback. These members would also provide the core of people to generate local labor news ideas, and local programming once they are trained to do so.
The project coordinator will collaborate with the educators and communicators that are already working (newsletter editors, etc.) in unions and locals around the state to publicize the series and develop the audience. This project will help prepare local union members to become media activists, to demystify television and use it to communicate with their own neighbors, representing the interests of their unions and their co-workers.
Training
Public access television was originally conceived as a way for ordinary citizens to produce their own programming. An essential component of this project will be the training of local labor union members to produce their own programs in their own communities. In the second year of the project, after the initial set-up, video training will be made available as part of the field organizing with central labor councils. Council members can be trained to produce their own labor program about local issues, which will augment local labor programming offerings and provide opportunities for local areas to send in the "best of" shows to be chosen for the national two-hour block. If the labor council is interested, the project coordinator can facilitate setting up local training. Training can either be provided through the local labor movement, if they have the resources, or it can be provided by the access center. Labor at the Crossroads in NYC is training NYC labor union members through a project with the New York Central Labor Council. Access centers all over the country train thousands of people ever week.
Distribution
The monthly program will be planned, coordinated, produced, duplicated, and distributed by individuals accountable to the AFL-CIO and to the affiliate unions who decide to participate in this program. The production will be coordi-nated from a central location, probably Washington, DC. or New York City.
Ideally, this programming would eventually be distributed nationally via satellite and downlinked by local cable systems. Satellite distribution is really the only way to begin thinking about a national cable channel. But satellite would become cost effective only after a critical number of local areas have begun using the programming, and after the program became at least weekly rather than monthly.
According to Dee Dee Halleck, Executive Director of Deep Dish TV, the oldest and most successful non-commercial satellite cable network in the country, one hour of satellite uplink time is available for approximately $3000. This means the total national satellite distribution for two hours a month would cost $72,000 annually, assuming that the central labor councils have arranged the downlink with their own cable systems. As you can see, this would pay for a lot of overnight UPS delivery, and the project would need to be large to justify satellite. Deep Dish Television already sends satellite programming to over 600 public access stations around the country, and already has the infrastructure set up to do this. We would certainly investigate the most cost-effective way of distribution, perhaps using their satellite arrangements, but this is for a later stage in the project when our own logistics are confirmed.
Research
An important component of this project should be researching the feasibility of expanding this "Labor News Network" on a larger scale. We need to study the structure and financing of the other satellite networks, particularly the religious and conservative cable channels. Project staff will conduct a complete feasibility study to be presented at the end of the first two-years of the pilot period.
Compelling the large cable companies to carry the channel would be a major area of research and organizing. The struggles now between Time Warner and Fox, and on a smaller scale between Free Speech TV and TCI over access to local cable channels are instructive. Research into these other issues would help determine the best way to build political support and policy arguments for the existence of a channel like this.
Administration
We propose that a project steering committee be formed with representation from the AFL-CIO, and from each affiliate choosing to support the project on a financial basis. The project coordinator would be hired by this committee, and the coordinator would then develop the project budget and three-year plan in detail. Monthly meetings to go over programming plans and project direction will be held. We further propose that the committee attempt to establish 501äã3) status for the project so that any monies spent or debates about political activity will not be complicated by the laws governing the labor movement, and the project can develop on a semi-autonomous basis. We feel that the success of the project depend on its ability to stay as clear as possible from the jurisdictional or political disputes between affiliates, and that contributors to the project must agree to allow autonomy to the staff to develop the project. The controlling element here would be that after 3 years, if the unions and the AFL-CIO are not satisfied that the project has fulfilled organizational and programmatic objectives, it will be terminated.
Financing
We are seeking financial support for this initial pilot from individual affiliates and from the AFL-CIO. Many affiliates already put significant resources into communication efforts, with little to show for it on television. Others spend a lot on video, but have limited ways to showcase these excellent programs. The AFL-CIO has recently developed an aggressive and commendable new approach to public relations and marketing that can only be boosted by the results of this project. Additional funds will be raised from foundations and individuals interested in laboräã voice. Our vision of the eventual cable channel that will result from this first effort is that it will be self-supporting and partly commercial. But the first steps must be made.
The total cost of the pilot project for the three years is estimated at $465,200. The initial year commitment is $121,000 We propose that we raise the first year budget to gauge the interest in and support for this project. If we can identify twelve international unions willing to invest between $10-12,000 apiece, we can set up the preliminary infrastructure and begin programming. At the end of the first year, we will have the structure in place, six months of programming behind us with more in process, and a good portion of the research completed for the final feasibility study. At that point, the initial funders could agree to continue supporting the project, or additional support could be found.
The labor movement must put more resources into communication. We can win the fight on the picket line, but lose the fight in the public hearts and minds. And increasingly, winning the first depends on winning the second. We have the opportunity now to move into the 21st century of telecommunications. Issues of civil rights, free speech, democracy and civil society hinge on the leadership of the labor movement being willing to take the initiative to get their politics onto the front burner.
Conclusion
We are entering an era when "niche programming" is the norm. There is no "mass" audience any more. In the new 500 channel universe, labor's voice must be one of those many voices heard. Audience size is important, but shouldn't derail efforts to get our message out. Getting commercial cable companies like Time Warner and TCI, who are notoriously anti-labor, to give space to a labor channel will be a fight itself, but one that our national labor movement must win. National Empowerment Television, currently on a growing number of cable systems, is only one of many powerful outlets the anti-labor forces have at their disposal. Reaction-aries took over Congress in 1994 with fax machines and AM talk radio stations. The Republican Party is launching its own cable channel, with corporate cable moguls eager to insert it into every American living room. We can't afford to sit around moaning about audience size. PACT is one way to begin a discussion among labor union members about the importance of television, and how television treats labor. If we have a successful pilot labor presence on access channels, with an involved, vocal audience, it will be harder for video providers to eliminate labor's voice from the coming 500-channel system.
But if the labor movement doesn't engage in this fight over who speaks on TV, who will? Issues of free speech, democracy, and a voice for labor are increasingly high stakes. Access to a national TV audience can be won, but it is an issue of political will and organizing. We have to demand that a movement as important as labor have access to television. And we have to make it happen.