WMUR's news team will have no role in next week's Democratic debate.
At issue are the pensions of 11 camera operators and production workers at WMUR who decided to join the International Brotherhood of Electical Workers.
According to the union, that decision prompted Hearst, WMUR's parent company, to push them out of the pensions they had, and force them into and into a 401k retirement plan. IBEW local 1228 business manager Fletcher Fisher says Hearst's stubbornness hurts WMUR and its news team.
"The fact that Josh McElveen can't participate in this is ridiculous and all they had to do is roll them into a pension that's already in the building, a union pension, that's all they had to do is move them from one pension to another. So it's a shame."
The IBEW had called on Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley to nix WMUR’s role in the debate if an agreement could not be reached before next Saturday.
Sanders and Clinton both met with WMUR station manager Jeff Bartlett over the issue.
In a statement Bartlett said he was "disappointed" and that he would continue to negotiate with the union in good faith and not through third parties.