With reports circulating recently of low morale in the news department, I had a chance to speak with Carmel Smyth, the president of the Canadian Media Guild’s Toronto branch. I asked her about the union’s approach.

PM: I want to start with morale in the news department. There’s always a certain amount of stress in news, but is it different this time?

Carmel Smyth: If you were to ask me what the big issues are from the people I speak with, they’re workload, news renewal, and the perpetual threat of layoffs.

What happened in news renewal is that so many peoples’ job situations changed all at the same time. People were always moving around in the news department, but this time there’s more people affected than before, all at the same time, and as a result there’s more unhappiness.

It is true that news is under considerable stress. They’ve probably had more changes this years than they’ve had in the last ten.

At the same time the CBC has the best relationship with management that we’ve had in years. Years ago management would manage, and that’s it. Now we’ve agreed to review the complaints that come out of the fourth floor, and they’ve said ‘okay let’s try and work on things.’

They’re reviewing now, how the hub operates… the renewal process is evolving as we speak, people are still being moving around, things are still changing.

There are lots of problems yes. but on the good side there are attempts being made that wouldn’t have happened a few years ago… that’s partly as a result of Hubert [Lacroix].

Grievances are down in the building because there’s a lot of pressure to try and solve them. In the last two years they’ve also made dozens of temporary staff permanent. So there’s lots of examples of how we can work together.

PM: To go back to the News department, and the morale there, is it time for the union to take a harder line?
Carmel Smyth: It’s something we’ve discussed. We’ve taken a harder line in the past. But during this period we’ve decided that we should try and work together.

Maybe it won’t work out down the line, but I think in the short term we’ve made some gains that we wouldn’t have made otherwise.

And I don’t think there’s much appetite for a strike.

Positive things are happening, yes, I know there’s unrest, particularly on the fourth floor. But at the same time, the changes haven’t even been a year, it’s still in a state of flux. We’re a long way from were a more serious labour actions is needed.

PM: So you’re going to give the process more time?
Carmel Smyth: Yes. I think there’s proof that they’re trying. The CBC doesn’t really have to keep meeting with us to try and work on this things. But they are.

We’ll see how far this goes. It’s not like they’re making empty promises.

They’re meeting with us and trying to resolve these things. Now I know things seem slow, but from a union perspective, it’s much, much quicker than they’ve been in the past.

And the other thing is that the union can’t stop decisions about programming. We can work with them to lessen the impact, but they can make the decision about merging departments and units, it’s their prerogative.

	Email This Post
	Labour/CBC Unions, Programming