A Massachusetts Congressman running for a seat in the U.S. Senate is wielding his campaign’s advertising funds to bring an end to what he is saying is a contract dispute between Boston ABC affiliate WCVB and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 1228.
However, the Boston Herald is reporting WCVB president and general manager Bill Fine has rejected Rep. Stephen Lynch‘s claims the station is in a contract dispute with the union and said Lynch has relied on “erroneous assumptions.”
Friday, Lynch sent a letter to Fine saying he was excited to participate in an upcoming debate at the Boston ABC affiliate, but he will not spend his ad money with the station due to a contract dispute with IBEW.
“Despite my desire to air as much paid advertising as possible during the campaign cycle, I cannot in good conscience spend hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising in WCVB while IBEW members have gone nearly two years without a new contract.”
Lynch, who calls himself a “card carrying union member” in the letter, vaguely threatens to skip the upcoming debate if the matter is not settled. In the letter, Lynch said,
[TVNewsCheck]“A similar issue arose during my first campaign for Congress in 2001, when I was forced to skip a debate at FOX25 (WFXT) because I refused to cross a picket line.”