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CBC Workers Vote on Settlement
After 17 months of difficult negotiations and a seven-week lockout, 5,500 members of the Canadian Media Guild-CWA at the country's public broadcasting network are voting on a proposed contract settlement that ensures their job security - the major issue on the bargaining table.
"We finally have established that there will be no runaway use of contract employees," said Arnold Amber, president of the CMG branch at Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "This was the major battle ground in the negotiations and we have won."
The number of contract employees will be limited to 9.5 percent of permanent staff under the tentative agreement. Workers who have been on contract for four years can convert to permanent status, and the provision is ongoing: Anyone on contract who completes four years of service during the life of the agreement - ending March 31, 2009 - will be able to convert to permanent status.
Other improvements include a wage increase of 12.6 percent over the next 4 1/2 years and a $1,000 signing bonus. In addition, a review will be conducted within 90 days of all non-permanent staff to ensure that people have been properly hired and assigned.
Voting is continuing through Oct 9. If ratified, employees will begin going back to work Tuesday, after Monday's Thanksgiving holiday in Canada.
TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said CBC alienated its workers, angered the public and achieved nothing by locking out its employees - and heads should roll. "You had a public corporation behaving with the same greed and short-sightedness we've come to expect from private employers in the United States," she said. "CBC President Rabinovitch and the board members who supported him should be shown the door."
The locked-out workers had enormous support throughout Canada from viewers to celebrities and political leaders. Politicians and newspapers have sharply criticized Rabinovitch for the lockout and his failure to explain why he took such drastic action.
"Now that the dispute appears finally to be over, Mr. Rabinovitch has some explaining to do," the Toronto Globe and Mail says in an editorial. "What was he trying to achieve by precipitating this bitter confrontation with the CBC union? What, if anything, has been gained by it?"
"We finally have established that there will be no runaway use of contract employees," said Arnold Amber, president of the CMG branch at Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "This was the major battle ground in the negotiations and we have won."
The number of contract employees will be limited to 9.5 percent of permanent staff under the tentative agreement. Workers who have been on contract for four years can convert to permanent status, and the provision is ongoing: Anyone on contract who completes four years of service during the life of the agreement - ending March 31, 2009 - will be able to convert to permanent status.
Other improvements include a wage increase of 12.6 percent over the next 4 1/2 years and a $1,000 signing bonus. In addition, a review will be conducted within 90 days of all non-permanent staff to ensure that people have been properly hired and assigned.
Voting is continuing through Oct 9. If ratified, employees will begin going back to work Tuesday, after Monday's Thanksgiving holiday in Canada.
TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said CBC alienated its workers, angered the public and achieved nothing by locking out its employees - and heads should roll. "You had a public corporation behaving with the same greed and short-sightedness we've come to expect from private employers in the United States," she said. "CBC President Rabinovitch and the board members who supported him should be shown the door."
The locked-out workers had enormous support throughout Canada from viewers to celebrities and political leaders. Politicians and newspapers have sharply criticized Rabinovitch for the lockout and his failure to explain why he took such drastic action.
"Now that the dispute appears finally to be over, Mr. Rabinovitch has some explaining to do," the Toronto Globe and Mail says in an editorial. "What was he trying to achieve by precipitating this bitter confrontation with the CBC union? What, if anything, has been gained by it?"