SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (MWC News) — Should Local 833 union members encourage a boycott of Sheboygan businesses? It depends on who you ask.
As of Monday November 30th, union members became less likely to tell their stories to the media, including WHBL Radio. That’s the same day WHBL Radio exposed the union’s list of targeted workers… thirteen workers that they referred to as “scabs” and “no longer our union brothers or sisters” for allegedly crossing the picket lines. Shortly after that list came out, union officials decided to encourage a boycott of WHBL and it’s advertisers, claiming biased reporting.
Steve Schouten is the Market Manager for WHBL Radio. He says their station has given fair, accurate unbiased reporting on the strike issues. He does say that because Kohler Company hasn’t made any public statements since David Kohler’s November 25th column in the Sheboygan Press newspaper, it’s been mostly union members getting exposure in the media, so if anything, the scales were tipped in favor of the union. “All of the coverage we’ve provided has been from the union’s point of view, and through the spoken word and through the writings of the union.”
Some Local 833 members have used social media and flyers to encourage people to stop doing business with WHBL and its advertisers. Schouten encourages everyone to look at the news product and judge for yourself. “I think that it’s important for members of the community to think for themselves, and if they want to judge WHBL, they should read the stories for themselves. The stories have been posted for days and weeks, and listen to our coverage of it.”
Schouten believes many of the union’s issues are with one of the talk shows heard weekdays on WHBL. Host Jerry Bader has been known to disagree with the union’s perspective on issues. Schouten says what many people don’t realize is that news reporting and talk shows are not the same. “What we’ll find is that listeners and readers don’t always, or they’re not always able to discern a clear line between what is news reporting and what is talk show, and they’re completely different animals.” He adds, “Our news department operates completely independently from talk shows like the Jerry Bader Show. One has virtually nothing to do with the other.”
Schouten says a boycott was attempted many years ago against WHBL by a labor union, without success. He says most of their advertisers are aware of the tactic, and have shared information with him. Schouten believes putting energy into a boycott can cause some harm to the business community, but says that energy would be better spent at the bargaining table. “I know that it can certainly hurt other businesses within a community. WHBL has been doing it’s thing for over ninety years, and we’ve helped a lot of businesses, a lot of non-profits, and I would like to see the effort be on resolving the contract, because I think everybody in the community wants Kohler and the union to come to a resolution on the agreement and get everybody back to work.”
So far, there are no negotiations scheduled. The two-tier wage structure is still the biggest obstacle, and neither side has budged.
(Listen to our interview with WHBL Market Manager Steve Schouten on our website, here.)
