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Strike by Technicians Continues Guild Wins Pay Boost for 3,700 CBC Journalists
After a marathon 21-hour stretch of negotiations, TNG-CWA's Canadian Media Guild narrowly averted a strike at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., with a settlement on March 19 that boosts salaries by 10 percent over 34 months for the approximately 3,700 TV and radio journalists and administrative workers.
However, a strike by another 1,800 CBC production workers that began Feb. 17 was still underway at press time. Those workers are represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union. Under Canadian law, the Guild members are prohibited from honoring the CEP picket lines, although its members are refusing to do any struck work and are supporting the strikers in other ways.
The strike has shut down more than half the CBC's regular programming, and many Guild members remain off the job, reported Arnold Amber, the elected director of TNG-Canada, the Canadian branch of The Newspaper Guild-CWA. "It's like a morgue around here" at the network offices, he noted in late March. Amber served as chief negotiator in the CBC talks.
Wages were a key issue in negotiations, and the new Guild settlement boosts pay by 2.5 percent retroactive to Jan. 1, 1999, by 3 percent this September and 3.5 percent a year later, with another 1 percent allocated for job upgrades. The contract runs through November of 2001.
Among other highlights, the new agreement extends union representation to workers at any future CBC ventures, gives contract employees a second opportunity to go on staff, reduces the probation period from three to two years, sets up a joint program to reduce job stress, and improves benefits and annual leave for part-timers.
However, a strike by another 1,800 CBC production workers that began Feb. 17 was still underway at press time. Those workers are represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union. Under Canadian law, the Guild members are prohibited from honoring the CEP picket lines, although its members are refusing to do any struck work and are supporting the strikers in other ways.
The strike has shut down more than half the CBC's regular programming, and many Guild members remain off the job, reported Arnold Amber, the elected director of TNG-Canada, the Canadian branch of The Newspaper Guild-CWA. "It's like a morgue around here" at the network offices, he noted in late March. Amber served as chief negotiator in the CBC talks.
Wages were a key issue in negotiations, and the new Guild settlement boosts pay by 2.5 percent retroactive to Jan. 1, 1999, by 3 percent this September and 3.5 percent a year later, with another 1 percent allocated for job upgrades. The contract runs through November of 2001.
Among other highlights, the new agreement extends union representation to workers at any future CBC ventures, gives contract employees a second opportunity to go on staff, reduces the probation period from three to two years, sets up a joint program to reduce job stress, and improves benefits and annual leave for part-timers.