Dan Gross: AFTRA helping Alycia Lane get her job back

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/columnists/20080326_Dan_Gross__AFTRA_helping_Alycia_Lane_get_her_job_back.html

Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2008

By Dan Gross
Philadelphia Daily News
THE LOCAL CHAPTER of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is trying to get Alycia Lane her CBS 3 anchoring job back. AFTRA filed a grievance over her January firing, charging that she had not been terminated properly by the station, says AFTRA counsel Jonathan Walters.

The matter is in arbitration, but no hearing has been set. "The relief sought by the union is her reinstatement because she was not fired properly," Walters said, declining to elaborate on how Lane's termination had been mishandled. A station source says that CBS 3 did not notify the union that Lane would be fired.



Besides the union grievance, Lane also has an active civil suit for wrongful termination against CBS 3, which let her go two weeks after her arrest in New York on charges of assaulting a police officer. In a New York courtroom on Feb. 25, the assault charge was dropped. Her case is in a prolonged period of dismissal, so long as she stays out of trouble until September.

"The matter between CBS 3 and AFTRA is primarily procedural and involves a technicality regarding the terms of notification within our contract with the union," CBS 3 President Michael Colleran said yesterday. "It does not impact our decision regarding the action taken in January."

Lane did not answer an e-mail from us yesterday seeking comment.