CMG and CBC/Radio-Canada reach tentative agreement on new five-year deal, announced Saturday afternoon Dec 13, 2008
Happy Holidays Happy New Year – JFW
The following is a joint communiqué issued today by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Canadian Media Guild (CMG).
December 13, 2008 – The Canadian Media Guild and the CBC/Radio-Canada have signed a tentative agreement on a deal that will take the parties to 2014. The five-year pact is scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2009 and is subject to ratification. It replaces a collective agreement that was set to expire in March of next year.
The agreement calls for wage increases of 1.5% in each year and is tied to Treasury Board levels. It has a wage re-opener at the beginning of the third year. There is a commitment that in the event the Treasury Board rate is increased during the life of the agreement that increase will be passed on to members of the bargaining unit.
The deal also sees improvements in maternity/paternity benefits, temporary upgrades, bereavement leave and benefits in the event of a downsizing.
In the coming days more details will be provided as well as plans for ratification meetings and vote.
The deal is being unanimously recommended for acceptance.
Marc-Philippe Laurin
CBC branch president
Canadian Media Guild
and
George C.B. Smith
Senior vice-president
Corporate priorities and implementation
CBC/Radio-Canada
12 Comments
I wouldn’t want to challenge your balanced argument which says more about the imbalance in some of the staffers lives at the CBC.
Layoffs are layoffs and they happen all the time, not just during contract negotiations. There were a handful back in August for pete’s sake.
So, let the left-brain thinkers offer their objections and the right-brain thinkers offer their insights. Together we can take a balanced and critical approach to the new deal. Attend meetings and ask the hard questions. I will.
LeonT
I can be a cynical as anybody at Teamakers, and you may soon be calling me a naive fool but unless the full document has some really nasty Easter eggs, I choose to give this my full and happy support. I have two pragmatic reasons, one based on each side of my brain.
Right-brain:
I lost my first professional career in 1992, due to collapse of the building industry. 8 years of spost-secondary down the drain with little chance of a bounce-back in time to get my certification logbook completed. I was bitter and it was hell.
In 1999 I lost my second career in Management due to a hostile takeover. I was self-trained so didn’™t have inside contacts or an appropriate resume for a headhunter’¦I was again bitter and it was hell. Neither had the benefit of any agreement other than my personal contract.
I retrained again and have a third career that I like, even though it pays about half. Yes, there will be layoffs and I may be in them. But I refuse to become scared, bitter or depressed before it happens. I don’™t want more fear-based hell.
It’™s okay to worry about the future, but I’™m going to hold onto this possibly positive sign as a way to keep the bleak cynicism out of my life until there really is a crisis. There comes a time when you have to re-tool the way you think in order to keep going.
So far, it looks like the Agreement was made in good faith’¦I choose to trust in the supposed progress instead of the old paranoia until I am proven wrong’¦Makes my work, and my life easier.
Left-brain:
Anybody else watching the news lately? The long knives are out not just for the CBC, but for collective agreements and unions in general.
It’™s coming not just from the current Government, but also public opinion.(Check cbc.ca, if you want to see rants)
Any labour relations strife will be a red-flag and we’™ll lose both real and managerial (g) jobs. We did not have our salaries rolled back at this time. I want to see survival as an entity as a theme in the full documentation’¦Trust me it can happen so easily.
It’™s in everybody’™s best interest to make kissy-face, at least publicly at this time.
So to both sides:
The CBC needs you to get along right now. You both have to work at it’¦even if it means privately sleeping in separate bedrooms in order to avoid a divorce for the sake of the children.
I’™d like to see fewer offensive excesses by some managemet and less also offensive grumbling and negativity from some union members. (Note the ’œsome’).
I’™ll accept you flying in for a meeting that you could netmeet if you are trying to save jobs. I’™ll accept you fighting for you stress-leave if you are actually stressed.
A lockout or a strike would be toxic, and perhaps fatally so.
I write this without reading or voting on the full agreement. I encourage everyone to read the full documentation when it is released and I encourage the union to provide people who can honestly explain any bafflegab that may be included.
Just my rant’¦ feel free to challenge my comment
Here the link with more details (released Thursday)
http://www.cmg.ca/CBCbranchagreementsummary2008EN.pdf
ratification will be followed by massive layoffs – guaranteed
Sherry…
You won’t be on strike or locked out because you likely won’t have a job. Open your eyes!!!
For God’s sake, you people. BOTH sides have been working for six months to agree, long before the economy hit the fan. And now they’ve agreed. What more do you want?
If you hate your manager so much, please quit. You are making it toxic for the rest of us.
Me, I’m going to raise a glass this holiday in relief that I won’t be striking, locked out, or crossing picket lines next year.
One shud take a closer look at this deal before passing judgement. However I suspect most CBC employees still don’t trust most of the managers who either called for the lock-out or supported it. I also suspect most employees are just happy to be working right now given the economic mess. Advantage: Managers
I expressed a hope as a bystander, not intending to offend anyone here, and I won’t apologize for admitting to my hope.
If you believe that (a) the Guild negotiating team messed up or (b) the Corporation’s negotiators got underhanded or (c) both, then please make the case.
No, Dwight’s always got positive commentary, even when he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, like collective agreements.
Stick to telling us how much you love Dr. Who, Dwight.
I’m a fan and viewer of CBC at present, hoping for the best out of this deal. Why am I accused of complaining?
Dwight – Can you specify or are you just a complainer with no matter what is presented to you at the dinner table….
May you all only enjoy, and never suffer, the consequences of this deal.