Employees of WNBC, NBC’s local affiliate in New York, are demanding they receive COVID-19 tests like their colleagues at NBC News, MSNBC and even “Saturday Night Live,” who are being tested at least once a week, sources close to the situation said.
Monday, October 12, 2020
NBC ripped by local news staffers in NYC over ‘unfair’ COVID-19 testing
Employees of WNBC, NBC’s local affiliate in New York, are demanding they receive COVID-19 tests like their colleagues at NBC News, MSNBC and even “Saturday Night Live,” who are being tested at least once a week, sources close to the situation said.
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NBC should be providing the same testing and treatment for all of its employees no matter what they do. The fact that they are testing some of their employees but not others is simply not fair or safe for any of the employees at all. If they were randomly testing all of their employees so that none of them were getting tested every week that would be one thing. But, routinely testing some of their employees every week is great for the ones getting tested but that does not mean that they are not at risk when they are at work because of the other population of employees that are not being tested. Even if the employees who are not being tested are not working with the employees who are, which the article tells us is not true, they still share the same elevators, entryways, hallways, and doors. Because of this they are still putting everyone in the building at risk. Not to mention making the employees who are not being tested feel as though they are second class citizens or employees.
I found this a common issue among many different organizations and companies regarding the covid pandemic and the amount of protection they provide to their employees. There definitely has been an unfair and unethical ranking of importance in terms of safety. The article mentions how SNL and MSNBC workers and specifically the faces of NBC would receive covid testing once a week and I can safely assume that they were given properly sanitized working environments. Yet it is preposterous to me that the stagehands and workers who make less than those top people are not getting the same treatment. Regardless of their social ranking in the company, testing should depend on the amount of exposure they have in their daily work. Stagehands, for example, definitely are the ones operating behind the scenes simultaneously with other workers. This would still be putting those higher-paid employees at risk as they are sharing the same space.
I am disappointed in NBC for not taking care of the safety of all of its employees equally. I really see no actual reason that they could state as to why the local news reporters are not receiving testing the same amount and ways that the national news reporters are receiving testing. They are all sitting in a studio reporting the news. The whole time reading the article I kept thinking about I am sure this is not the first time that the local news station has gotten the short end of the stick compared to the national news stations and SNL. And at the end of the article, they did mention that this is just the next thing in the pattern of the local news outlet being treated less than the national news outlet. I am sure there is more funding allocated to the national news, but this is NBC still. They are a major corporation that definitely has the resources to be providing adequate testing to all the onsite employees. And if they don’t have the resources to be doing that, they shouldn’t be having in person news.
The transition within the United States from local news sources to twenty-four hour national news has created a plethora of negative consequences that local news is continually dealing with. This issue regarding COVID-19 testing is yet another instance in which local news is pushed aside to funnel money and other resources towards national news. While obviously the argument could be made that national news generates more income, it is still the responsibility of NBC to be providing safe conditions to the workers that they are requiring to come into the office. I think the article highlights various other issues, particularly how lower level staff is being ignored and essentially left out of the testing strategy. In the instance where an untested stage hand and tested teleprompter operator could be working right next to each other it is clear that NBC is working around testing and avoiding spending the extra money to ensure safe working conditions.
If NBC is requiring employees to come into work they should create the safest possible environment for them to do so. Testing all employees both in front and behind the camera should be required to undergo testing provided by NBC. Only testing some people and not others defeats the purpose of testing at all if they are interacting with each other. If people are being required to work in potentially dangerous situations it would make sense for NBC to make it as safe as possible. It would benefit them too as they wouldn't have to deal with the implications of an outbreak or figure out how to replace sick workers. I don't understand their hesitancy to provide testing to everyone, they obviously have enough money for it and in the long run, it may even help them save money. I hope that NBC begins to listen to the concern of its employees and implement company-wide testing no matter the salary of the person. This is the only way to make the working environment the safest it can be.
This is a huge oversight and sadly this trickles down to other industries, professions, and employees that have been affected by the pandemic. The idea is, business' will re open as long as they can protect their people, but that clearly isn't the case because it is in fact expensive. I thought the section on SNL is particularly interesting because of what I know about SNL and Lorne Michaels already- Lorne believes that this variety show is completely contingent on the audience and the operation that it requires in order to be the successful phenomenon that it is. I had the pleasure of being in the live audience for the last live show before the pandemic, I can positively tell you that it is a lot of people in one room, a huge crew and an even bigger audience as well as the actors. It is so incredibly unfair to employees to have their life and health be treated as less than because they are replaceable and I think NBC should take the note and drop the dollars if they want to continue to re open at full capacity.
This article is infuriating, but I guess it fits the theme of 2020. NBC should be ashamed of themselves for only routinely testing some employees, while it has the funds available to make sure that ALL employees are healthy and COVID free. What NBC should have done is test all employees, make sure that everyone who went to work is covid free, and then implement random testing, so that everyone and anyone could be called in at any minute to complete a covid test. By randomly testing everyone in the building, they have a better chance of making sure no one is carrying the virus, instead of only testing ‘top’ employees, and shrugging for the rest of their company. I am so frustrated that companies are only worried about some employees, if I was working at NBC I would consider resigning because here is the proof that value certain lives, but not all lives in their company.
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