Why I really left Laredo, TX...

written may 2003

After I graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a degree in Journalism & Mass Communications in May of 2001, I worked as a dishwasher in an Indonesian restaurant for 2 months while I searched for a job in television news. In late July of 2001, I was offered a job as morning producer for KGNS Pro 8 News in Laredo, Texas. The station faxed an employment contract to me and gave me 24 hours to decide whether or not to accept the position. I was never offered, nor had the opportunity to visit Laredo and KGNS before I signed the employment contract. I paid my own moving expenses and relocation costs necessary to accept the job and began working for Pro 8 News.

The contract stated I would make $7.93 and hour with the opportunity to earn overtime. I assumed that overtime would be at least my regular hourly wage. However, when I received my first paycheck it was lower than expected. KGNS had unilaterally altered the terms of the contract to my material detriment. Instead of paying me $7.93 an hour with overtime they had changed my employee status to exempt at a salary of $16,000 a year. When I approached the general manager about the changes to my contract without my consent, Mary Nell Sanchez said the station was under investigation by the Texas Wage and Labor Board and was being compelled to change the station’s overtime policy. The new overtime policy would pay employees half their regular hourly wage for each hour of overtime worked. I voiced my displeasure about the changes and was told I could leave if I did not like them. However, after paying for my relocation out of my own pocket, I lacked the money to move again so I continued performance of my duties under the contract in good faith although they were in breach of the contract. If I had been paid under the terms of the contract I had signed, working an average of 50 hours a week, I would have made over $20,000 dollars a year. $4000 more than I was actually being paid. I spoke with the General Manager two more times regarding the changes made to my compensation under the contract and never received a satisfactory reply.

After four months as producer of the morning and noon news, I was promoted to the 6 & 10pm evening newscasts. Along with this promotion came a $2,000 a year raise, but I never signed a new contract or received a new title. After producing the 6 & 10pm newscasts for a month, our entire Spanish news team resigned en masse and walked off the job on the same day. Subsequently, I became responsible for producing the 5 pm newscast along with my other duties. I performed this additional duty without complaint nor additional compensation until a new producer could be found. During this period I began to look for new employment that would pay me at least as much as I had expected to make under the terms of contract I had signed with KGNS.

I eventually interviewed with KMOL in San Antonio and was hired as an associate producer making $29,000 a year. I put in two weeks notice of my resignation at KGNS and prepared to leave for the new job. One week before I was to leave, I received a call from Anne Nau, Executive Producer at KMOL. Anne Nau told me the General Manger of KGNS; Mary Nell Sanchez had threatened to sue KMOL if they went through with my hiring. I insisted I was not under contract to KGNS because they had breached my contract upon my arrival in Laredo and she asked me to fax her a copy of the contract. As I was faxing her the contract, I was called into the General Manger’s office along with KGNS Executive Producer, Richard Rocha. In Mary Nell Sanchez’s office she told me she and spoken to KMOL and planned on suing both KMOL and myself if I tried to work there. I again voiced my opinion that KGNS had breached their contract with me first and that I was free to pursue other employment since they were not paying me according to the terms of my contract. She called me a “traitor” and said I had “betrayed the station” before suspending me without pay for a week and demoting me back to the morning show. She also said she would make use of her extensive contacts to ensure that I could not work for any other station in Texas or the rest of the nation. KMOL retracted their job offer in the face of litigation by KGNS and I went through with my resignation, leaving KGNS on May 31, 2002. I subsequently moved to Orlando spent the summer building houses for a construction company before I got a job selling cars with Saturn of Orlando. I have been selling an average of thirty cars a month for the last year but the experience has made me realize how much I miss having a passion for my work.