TORONTO – The Canadian Media Guild has met with federal labour minister Joe Fontana to ask for the appointment of a special mediator to try and end the lockout of 5,500 employees by the CBC.
Fontana has indicated that he is prepared to do whatever he can to get the talks going again, the CMG said today.
In the meantime, check out this web site, which links to the work CBC employees are doing on the web (blogs, web news, etc.) and on university campus radio stations – and a bit about CBC English TV head Richard Stursberg…
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OTTAWA – "Should a Crown corporation that locks out its employees continue to get its full parliamentary appropriation?" asks the Canadian Media Guild today.
In an ad appearing today in the Hill Times, Parliament Hill’s weekly newspaper, the union called on the federal government to withhold CBC’s parliamentary appropriation during the lockout. However, one wonders who’s there to read it, since Parliament is on its usual long summer break and many MPs are in their home ridings or on vacation.
"CBC management should not be using Canadians’ money to finance the lockout," said Guild president Lise Lareau in a…
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TORONTO – In April the CRTC said that CTV Newsnet no longer had to abide by the 15 minute headline news wheel it was licensed to show.
Today, the channel revealed a new, clean look and announced a revamped late afternoon and prime-time format featuring major increases in its anchor, reporting, and production teams, says the company.
(And with the CBC in lockout mode, what better time for CTV to be announcing an expansion of its news while one of its rivals airs BBC news repeats.)
Gone is the weather and time vertical and horizontal wrap around the Newsnet…
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TORONTO – With unions across the country taking advantage of a high profile lockout by signaling their support for the CBC workers with hyperbolic press releases, the CBC felt the need to clarify things.
This week CUPE National president Paul Moist made public his position on the current work stoppage at the CBC with a press release, reported on www.cartt.ca. “Mr. Moist’s support for CMG and its positions is not unexpected,” says a release from the CBC. “However, it is disappointing that he recites the union line with little apparent thought to the real issues behind it and…
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TORONTO – Sometime next week, CBC’s locked-out Canadian Media Guild members will launch an Internet-based media service.
It will present journalism, and eventually other programming, produced by the reporters, researchers, writers, hosts, producers, technicians and support staff, says the Guild.
At launch, the production will be audio-only.
This project is coming together very quickly and the Toronto group is close to finalizing office/studio space. “We have a good name, which will be announced shortly for maximum publicity; and we have the skills to remind the audience of how professional CANADIAN journalism looks and sounds,” says the union.
Various ad-hoc…
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TORONTO – After four full days on the picket lines – and lots of BBC programming hitting the airwaves, there are no new talks planned between the CBC and its locked out Canadian Media Guild union members.
However, says the CMG, the Guild’s chief negotiator, Dan Oldfield, is in daily contact with his counterpart from management, Stephen Satchel.
Satchel is the new lead negotiator for the CBC as the Corp.’s head of industrial relations, Michelle Sparling, removed herself from the table last week in an attempt to see if that would move along the talks.
On Tuesday, federal mediators…
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OTTAWA – The newspaper and radio ads purchased by the CBC to explain the company’s side of the worker lockout has struck a negative chord with the Canadian Labour Congress.
In a press release, CLC president Ken Georgetti said he finds the tactic galling and says he thinks most Canadians feel the same way.
"The last budget gave the CBC new funding to put towards better service. Rather than using that money for better programming, it’s being wasted on advertising at the competition! It’s being used to promote an agenda that insults its workers and fails the CBC audience,…
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TORONTO – Well, that didn’t take long.
As reported yesterday evening by cbc.ca (repeated here on cartt.ca), former head of CBC programming is, in fact, headed to the Canadian Film Centre.
Robert Munroe, chair of the board of the CFC confirmed that this morning. Klymkiw starts his new job in late September.
"We are incredibly excited to have Slawko take the helm of the Canadian Film Centre," said Munroe, in the press release. "The depth of experience and industry knowledge that he brings to the position will be integral to leading the next exciting chapter in the Film…
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TORONTO – High definition television set owners in Toronto and Vancouver can now pick up CTV in HD, over the air.
The company officially announced its digital transmitters on Toronto’s CN Tower and Vancouver’s Mount Seymour are operational. CTV is the first national conventional Canadian broadcaster to transmit HD OTA, says the company. (Ed note: this is a clarification of an earlier version of this story which said CTV was the first Canadian broadcaster to offer high definition over the air – a distinction several readers pointed out – and that www.cartt.ca should have remembered – belongs to Citytv…
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TORONTO – The man ultimately responsible for what you’ve seen on the CBC for almost a decade has decided to call it quits.
CBC announced Wednesday evening that Slawko Klymkiw (right), executive director, network programming, has stepped down after 25 years with the Corp. and nine as head of English television programming.
While speculation will likely run rampant over the reasons for his departure, he insists it wasn’t because of the current lockout, adding the move has been coming for a while. “Nine years is an extraordinarily long time for anyone to be the Program Director of a major…
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