Some details are starting to emerge about the cost-cutting measures announced yesterday.

• The Current will have their budget cut by 10 per cent;
• In Windsor, the French radio morning show and Saturday show will be cancelled, to be replaced by regional inserts into  Toronto programming;
• Overnight French network music programming currently produced out of Windsor, Edmonton and Vancouver will be eliminated;
• French Regional radio noon shows will be replaced by a new national show - it’s not yet known where this program will originate;
• On the French Services TV side, the regional noon news program out of Ottawa will be cancelled;
• The French supper-hour regional Téléjournal program will be reduced from 60 minutes to 30 for the summer season The program Zeste will be put on hiatus.

I should say none of this has been verified, and it’s coming from various sources. I’m sure there will be more details shortly.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 12:33 pm (26 Mar 2009)

While a number of CBC insiders are commenting on the possibility of deep cuts at the CBC, one comment stood out for me. It’s from Tony:

I have to say I something about people who are unwilling to step out of job descriptions. Most of us are paid by the hour. We should all be willing to do whatever needs to be done. End of story. Those attitudes are so out of date. In the real world grads are arriving ready to shoot, edit and report. They will also be more than willing to grab a few stills for the web and write a little blog at the end of the day. They are taught all those jobs as ONE job now in school.

I couldn’t agree more.

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	The Media Landscape, Working for the CBC	Posted at 9:39 pm (04 Mar 2009)

Joe Schlesinger has earned a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

I must say I can’t think of anyone at the corporation more deserving on this award. Schlesinger has worked for the CBC since 1966. I can still vividly remember his reports from Czechoslovakia and Hungary as the Soviet Union crumbled.

He covered wars and conflicts, from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf, and examined Canadian foreign policy under prime ministers stretching from Pierre Trudeau to Jean Chrétien.

For more on the award and Joe’s remarkable career click here.

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	People, Personalities, Working for the CBC	Posted at 1:06 pm (26 Feb 2009)

The new collective agreement was ratified with a vote of 93 per cent in favour.

I can’t tell you how delighted I am with this news. Not only because we don’t have to hit the pavement again, but because it’s the culmination of a new relationship between the union and management that has been long overdue at this corporation.

What are your thoughts?

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 11:16 am (30 Jan 2009)

Today is the last day to vote on the new collective agreement. You can vote until 8 PM eastern time. If you don’t know the details of the agreement, go here for a quick summary, if you want to read the full agreement, go here to download it.

If you want a summary of the agreement in one sentence, here it is: While pink slips are flying across the media industry, this deal sees a 1.5 per cent salary increase for CBC employees and increases some benefits.

To vote on the agreement go to www.cmg.ca and follow the links. You’ll need your nine-digit CMG number, which is the number on your union membership card, not the number on your employee access card. If you don’t know your number, email vote@cmg.ca and they’ll send it to you.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 10:24 am (29 Jan 2009)

Lise Lareau, President of the Canadian Media Guild, has launched a new blog “from the front lines of Canada’s media.”

The blog aims to “discuss what the media is not covering about itself and to share comments and ideas.”

Her first post is on the economic crisis currently hammering the media industry in both Canada and the United States. “What’s not being told is that a perfect storm is battering virtually every North American media company,” Lareau writes.

You can read her entire post here.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 4:12 pm (19 Jan 2009)

On Thursday the CMG released more details of the new collective agreement. “In short it has been agreed this deal is merely the starting point… Improving the ongoing relationship between the parties is the key element in this deal,” the Guild email said.

One of the major points of the deal is a 1.5 per cent salary increase effective January 1, 2009 - which means if you make $50,000 a year at you’ll be looking at a $750 dollar raise on January 1st, 2009. The 1.5 per cent rate is set by the federal Treasury Board and affects all public service unions.

“The proposed salary increases are a reflection of the current financial crisis and the limits in funding for wage increases for the public service set by Treasury Board. Other public service Unions are seeing rollbacks, we fortunately are not,” Marc-Philippe Laurin, the CMG branch president, who helped negotiate the deal said this week. “If the [Treasury Board] rate goes up in year three, four and five, we get the difference,” he added.

The deal is contingent a late January ratification vote by CMG members.

Other highlights of the deal include:

• An increase of the co-parenting provisions to 80% from 75%;
• Three weeks severance for every year of service compared to two weeks in the last collective agreement;
• Allows employees to buy additional vacation time;
• Increased access and choice for training;
• A review of compensation for IT and maintenance staff, and a review of sales targets and commissions for sales staff;
• An acknowledgement that the bureaucratic and painful PMSD process doesn’t really work.

Overall the deal reflects CBC President Hubert Lacroix’s direction. One of the major elements of the deal - improving the relationship between employees and management - is one of Lacroix’s major objectives. “This is the first time in my CBC career that bargaining has involved real dialogue from beginning to end,” Laurin said.

In some ways it’s amazing that the we’ve gone from being locked-out to a reaching new collective agreement based on trust and improved relationships in the span of four years. “Many things changed in this round of bargaining, but mainly the perception each had of the other as the enemy,” Laurin said.

The deal is also considered a living document - it’s more of guide than the final word. And it’s not set in stone. Some of the provisions can be changed, with mutual agreement, during the course of the agreement.

The full details of the deal are available here.

So what do you think of the deal? Is it good, bad, does it depend too much good relationships, or this a better way forward than picket signs and walking shoes?

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 3:03 pm (19 Dec 2008)

Despite having little additional information on the tentative agreement, a vote has been set. The ratification vote will occur at the end of January. The vote happen after membership meetings in most CBC locations between January 12th and 25th.

Expect highlights of the deal to be sent out on Thursday. The full text will be available in January. The Guild says “The full memorandum of agreement is currently being collated and translated.”

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 3:35 pm (16 Dec 2008)

The CBC and the Canadian Media Guild have reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year deal after seven weeks of negotiations. The deal was signed this afternoon. It is subject to a ratification vote by guild members.

If ratified, the deal would come into effect on January 1st, 2009 and last until 2014.

The details are a bit thin at this point, but here are the highlights:

• Wage increases of 1.5 per cent each year;
• Improvements in maternity/paternity benefits;
• Improved benefits for bereavement leave and layoffs.
  

There are obviously way more details on the deal, and I’ll post them as I get them.

What do you think so far?

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 6:22 pm (13 Dec 2008)

CBC Radio in Montreal is looking for a new host for its Radio Noon show.

Besides about five years of on-air or equivalent experience, you’ve got to understand the culture of French Canada and have extensive knowledge of current affairs, in particular of Quebec public affairs.

Your English musts be very goods and the Frenchs pas le mal.

Finally, in a requirement that seems to rule me out of all CBC work these days: “Extensive general knowledge.”

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	Getting a Job, Human Resources, Montreal	Posted at 12:45 pm (18 Aug 2008)

Last Friday, CBC/Radio-Canada and CMG completed a second full week of meetings designed to improve the relationship between the parties.

The meetings, which included facilitator Warren Edmondson, were initiated by executives of the CMG and the CBC/Radio-Canada and were the product of several joint discussions held between February and May.

During these two full weeks, the parties tackled number of hot topics including Temporary Employment and Contract Employment. Several grievances have been resolved and they’ll set a precedent to future temporary employment situations. CBC says more details are coming in a few weeks.

More meeting dates are scheduled in the Fall.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 8:30 pm (23 Jul 2008)

Hubert Lacroix spoke yesterday at the Canadian Media Guild’s biannual convention. It marked the first time that a CBC/Radio-Canada President and CEO spoke at a CMG convention.

Lacroix said poor communication between the senior executives and guild representatives underscored an urgent need to rebuild a proper relationship. Lacroix’s said his mission since he joined the CBC 18 months ago has been to build a greater level of respect and transparency at every level of the organization.

Lacroix called for a “paradigm shift” (yes, he actually said “paradigm shift”) in thinking to incorporate more pride and positivity. He added that he knew the job was hard because the same executives are in the same place as they were during the 2005 lockout. He also highlighted that each member of his senior management team had been fully briefed on the importance of the CBC/CMG relationship, and “failure is not an option” to them.

Lacroix also spoke of the changing media environment, particularly of the BBC’s move to up their budget for their web services from $200 million to $800 million US annually. He used this as a pointed example; “[Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC] is going to take almost one-half our total annual budget for CBC/Radio-Canada and invest it in Web services and Web-related initiatives,” Lacroix told delegates, pointing to the challenge of working in an industry that is constantly requiring us to rethink our existing strategies. “How can we keep being relevant in this environment if we can’t talk? If our own labour and management team can’t change this, no one can.”

Lacroix has also started up a key initiative, “Challenge Us!”, which brings together 65 CBC employees from all levels and all areas of the country, in order to examine the employee/employer relationship and change it to a healthy and productive one. He recognized the inputs from key members of the Canadian Media Guild, and finished by once again reiterating that failure was not an option, and that the relationship must improve from both sides.

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	Executives, Human Resources, Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 12:48 pm (26 May 2008)

This morning, I invited Marc Philippe Laurin, president of the CMG’s CBC branch, and George C.B. Smith, Senior Vice-President of CBC Human Resources, to sit down for separate interviews to discuss their thoughts on the upcoming negotiations for the next Collective Agreement.

I thought it would be interesting to know what the key issues are this time around, how the last C.A. has fared, what issues are still outstanding, and so on.

Update:

• CMG replies saying it’s too early to know what the issues are. They’ll have a better sense of it after their committee meets in June.
• CBC communications says George Smith isn’t ready to discuss it yet, but will in June.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 11:41 am (23 Apr 2008)

APRIL 23 UPDATE: The CBC has responded to this. See below.

The Canadian Media Guild, which represents about 5,500 workers at the CBC, along with its French union counterpart, say a Quebec judge overstepped her bounds in giving the CBC permission to not act on a resolution from the Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits dealing with a pension surplus.

From the Canadian Media Guild:

In 2000, the CBC Pension Plan reported a surplus of more than $600 million. While some of it, $134 million, was refunded, employees and pensioners passed a motion at the meeting of the Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits (CCSB) directing the CBC to distribute a further $202 million to employees and pensioners. The Corporation refused and the unions filed grievances, claiming that management was obliged to follow the direction of the CCSB in circumstances where there was no additional cost to the Corporation. After nearly a year of hearings, arbitrator Denis Nadeau ruled in the unions’ favour.

CBC applied for judicial review of the decision. More than a year after the completion of the court proceeding, Quebec Superior Court judge Jeannine M. Rousseau overturned the arbitrator’s decision.

In a statement from the CMG, the union says the judge acted outside of her authority. “Labour arbitrators in Canada have broad authority to determine the issues before them,” it said, “And under Canadian law courts must give them a high degree of deference.”

The unions are asking to Quebec Court of Appeal to reinstate arbitrator Nadeau’s decision.

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UPDATE APRIL 23, 2008 - CBC’S RESPONSE:

A few days ago, the Superior Court of Quebec rendered a decision in favour of CBC/Radio-Canada on a matter relating to pension plan surplus management.

In June 2006, a labour arbitrator ruled against CBC/Radio-Canada, finding that it had violated the collective agreement by not following the recommendations of the Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits (CCSB) regarding the distribution of a pension plan surplus in 1999.

CBC/Radio-Canada claimed that given the CCSB’s status as a consultative body, its recommendations regarding distribution of the surplus required the approval of the Board of Directors prior to implementation, which it did not have at the time.

In response to the arbitrator’s ruling, CBC/Radio-Canada filed for judicial review before the Superior Court of Quebec. In her decision, Madame Justice Rousseau upheld CBC/Radio-Canada’s position on the matter, confirming that the Board of Directors must indeed approve the recommendations of the CCSB before they can be acted upon.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 12:27 pm (22 Apr 2008)