News crews at Santa Barbara’s KEYT-TV planned to walk off the job Tuesday night—hours before the start of Old Spanish Days Fiesta—in a 24-hour strike.
The bold action is intended to pressure the station’s Missouri-based ownership after nearly two years of newsroom strife over wages and working conditions.
The move threw into question the station’s ability to serve its news audiences across five separate broadcasts Wednesday, on a day reporters and videographers would typically criss-cross Fiesta mercados for images and interviews.
Instead of covering fires, car crashes, politics or any other stories, broadcast journalists said they’d trade the airwaves for the picket line and public outreach. Management reportedly learned about the plan Monday night.
“We really wish that we didn’t have to do this,” said Gene Silva, a KEYT videographer who described recent rounds of negotiations that fell apart July 22 as the catalyst for the strike. “It’s like they wanted to give us less and less every single time.”
It was unclear how the station planned to fill its multiple daily news shows.
The strike, timed to start after the 11 p.m. news ends Tuesday, was not expected to significantly disrupt a live Wednesday evening broadcast of La Fiesta Pequena, the Old Spanish Days opening ceremony at the Old Mission Santa Barbara.
“We’re not affected,” said Fiesta spokesman David Bolton.
The production in 2021 shifted from KEYT staff members to a Los Angeles-based, third-party team that also provides the feed, Bolton said.
Representatives at the News-Press & Gazette Company, which purchased KEYT in 2012, did not immediately return requests for comment. The company is not affiliated with the Santa Barbara News-Press.
KEYT workers unionized in November 2024—in response to what they described as low wages and escalating workloads—a trend the videographer Silva said has continued since, as employees leave but aren’t replaced.
“We’ve ended up getting more and more responsibilities,” Silva said Tuesday, describing how he sometimes runs an audio mixing board. “They haven’t been giving us the salaries or the pay of the people we’ve lost.”
Half of the KEYT newsroom bargaining unit makes the California minimum wage of $16.90 per hour, said Raquel Ruiz, a representative of the International Cinematographer’s Guild Local 600, which represents the workers.
During negotiations, the union has filed at least three unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging News-Press & Gazette refused to provide information necessary for bargaining, refused to bargain in good faith and unlawfully interfered with and coerced employees exercising protected rights, Ruiz said.
This summer, the union and ownership met with a state mediator, but those talks fell apart two weeks ago, she said.
“That’s when the membership decided to pull the trigger,” Ruiz said, adding that every bargaining member participated in a vote that won with 95% in support of the strike. “We just want to send a clear message. People are really frustrated.”
While the KEYT morning show anchors are among the more than two dozen station employees represented by the union, evening and nighttime anchors are not.
Whether the anchors not represented can successfully handle any news broadcasts on their own late Wednesday, or perhaps with help from temporary workers, remained to be seen.
KEYT reporter John Palminteri, arguably the most recognizable television personality in Santa Barbara, is represented by the union. Given its relatively short duration, the strike would not affect his participation as grand marshal of the Fiesta Historical Parade on Friday.
As he prepared to leave it behind for a day, Silva said he loves his job.
“Journalism matters,” he said. “We all deserve dignity as workers in this field.”
