TORONTO – Unless things start happening very soon, like today, 5,500 CBC TV and radio employees could be off the job Monday, affecting dozens of hours of programming.
The CBC says the union quit the bargaining table on Monday and has yet to return. “Monday night the union walked away from the table and since, we’ve been ready, willing and able to negotiate with them,” CBC spokesman Jason MacDonald told www.cartt.ca.
The strike/lockout deadline is midnight Sunday. “At 12:01 Monday morning there could be a strike or lockout,” added MacDonald, who declined to say whether or not CBC would lock its employees out if no deal is reached.
Should it come to a strike or lockout Monday, the most visible impact will be on news and sports. Canada Games coverage, happening right now in Regina, would cease and live coverage of the Rogers Cup tennis would be abandoned. The CFL is already on notice and looking for broadcast alternatives because the CBC will not be able to air games during a strike or lockout.
When asked on Wednesday afternoon if there’s enough time to get a deal done, he said the two sides would have to work night and day through Sunday. “But, where is the union?” MacDonald asked.
Just a couple of floors down, actually, says the Canadian Media Guild, the union representing the workers.
“It has come to our attention that some of our members may be under the mistaken impression that we have abandoned the bargaining process. This, as a result of CBC management’s recent communiqué, which seriously misrepresented the current situation,” says a CMG statement.
“To set the record straight: the Guild bargaining committee remains together. We are located in the same hotel meeting rooms where we have spent the past eight months. We are conveniently located just two floors away from the Corporation bargaining committee. No one from that committee has made any attempt to contact us since earlier this week.
“On Monday night the CBC requested a meeting of a subcommittee that has been attempting to deal with the vital issue of Employment Status… At the meeting, representatives of the Corporation bargaining committee advised us that they would only bargain the issue if we based the discussions on their proposal. We told them – as we have consistently from day one – that we will not agree to excluding entire classifications (e.g. all producers, all AP/technicians, all sales reps) from permanent jobs. At that point we told the Corporation that we would be in touch,” reads the release.
The battle is mainly over contract employees, or hiring for short-term projects, and what job classifications the CBC may pursue such hires. The union doesn’t seem like it’s going to budge from its opinion that the CBC should hire full time employees most times it has a project to be done or a show to produce.
“When we talk of hiring contract employees we’re not talking about eliminating our permanent work force or never hiring permanent people,” says MacDonald. But, operationally, it makes more sense to be able to hire on a contract basis, knowing that certain project – like some TV programs – have limited life spans, and that hiring full-timers is very expensive.
MacDonald pointed out that all contract workers have the same rights and privileges as full-timers and that the CBC has told the union it will not be cutting jobs of existing staff.
The union says, however, that it was threatened with an ultimatum and that the Corp. is being completely inflexible. “It has now become painfully obvious that CBC management is prepared to risk the future of public broadcasting in order to get its way,” said a CMG release today.
“Management refuses to move from its position to permit entire classifications of employees to be hired on short-term contracts. And it now refuses to bargain until the Guild agrees to that position – something the Guild has said repeatedly it will never do. The future of careers, pension plans, benefits, and decent working conditions is at stake, as is journalistic and creative independence.
“To quote the Corporation’s lead bargainer, ‘This is very much the hill we will die on. This is the mandate for us and the mandate is very clear. We need flexibility. We realize where this (our position) may lead us, and we’re prepared to deal with the consequences,’” recounts the union release.
So, on Wednesday, the CMG filed a bad faith bargaining complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board based on the CBC’s tabling of a 200-page document just days before the deadline. “The document contains new language, revised proposals and reneges on agreed-to language. CBC management has presented it without identifying or explaining any of the changes,” says the union.
Also yesterday, ACTRA, the 21,000-member Canadian performers’ union, pledged its support for CMG. ACTRA is currently in negotiations with the CBC to renew agreements covering TV and radio; existing agreements expired on July 31, 2005. “The unions blame their disputes with the CBC on a core group of senior managers who believe that extracting concessions from the unions is part of the ‘business agenda’ of the public broadcaster,” says the ACTRA press release.
"The idea of a business agenda sounds good, until you consider what they think this should mean," says Canadian Media Guild president Lise Lareau. "CBC management is demanding we move backward and turn the place into a revolving door of people on temporary contracts. Somehow this is viewed as a model of efficiency. What this really means is the erosion of real careers in public broadcasting."
Actually, moving to a more businesslike approach is what every Canadian should want, added MacDonald, since it’s our money that funds the place.
“Taxpayers should be appalled to hear (Larose’s comments),” he said. “We must be as businesslike and efficient as any other company.”
