Members of the three English-language unions representing about 6,500 cbc employees voted in favor of a strike mandate as of Monday, April 29, and two of the unions’ four bargaining units will be in a legal position to strike as Playback goes to press at the end of Thursday, May 2.

With issues of contracting out projects to private sources and job security at the top of the agenda, representatives of the unions and cbc management were back at the bargaining table April 30 with mediators appointed by the federal minister of labour. A press blackout was imposed Tuesday afternoon.

In the event of a strike, cbc spokesman Tom Curzon says the network will mount tv and radio programming, including news and hockey playoffs to the best of its ability, probably using cbc management staff, but the schedule will be altered.

‘With thousands of our employees out, it would be naive of us to suggest we could have a full schedule on,’ says Curzon. ‘But we will provide a service to the Canadian public in news and entertainment programming as well as hockey playoffs.’

Curzon says at this point cbc management is not contemplating locking out its employees.

Anne Pick, vice-chair of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, says while programming like hockey playoffs could be managed using feeds, a strike would affect internal programming and would likely delay the launch of new programming strands like the Biography documentary series proposed earlier this year, which would affect the independent production community.

Pick, who believes a strike would be a negative for all concerned, says the issue of ‘back door’ privatization in this debate is a red herring.

‘Working with the independent community to produce cost-effective, publicly mandated programming is not privatizing,’ says Pick. ‘In fact, we believe that working closely with the independent sector to get quality programs that are often cheaper than in-house productions is a way the cbc can in fact survive, which in the long run will save it from privatization.’

In the event of a strike, those who lease production and post facilities at the CBC Broadcasting Centre will still have access to the building.

The three English-language unions involved are the Canadian Media Guild, representing 3,300 reporters, producers, anchors, researchers and other production staff; the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, representing about 2,300 technicians, design employees and tradespeople and, in a separate unit, about 35 security guards; and the Canadian Broadcast Employees Union, a unit of cupe, representing 950 clerical and administrative employees.

The strike mandate, which comes after 16 months of bargaining, was supported by 70% of union members who voted, or about 60% overall.

Gord Hunter, national vp, media at cep, says over the last several years, collective agreements have allowed for contracting out projects to private sources. Hunter says the primary concerns are that the practice not be allowed to be open-ended and the unions’ desire to discuss contracting out with regard to further staff cuts.

‘Our greatest concern now is that the cbc is looking for carte blanche (in terms of contracting out),’ says Hunter. ‘We’re saying that we can do a lot of this work inside cheaper than outside. We want to talk about the relationship between contracting out and layoffs. The cbc has said so far they don’t have a mandate to discuss those things.’

Hunter says there are a number of issues which the unions believe, given the opportunity for discussion, could be resolved.

Curzon says the network is looking for flexibility. ‘We have said all along the status quo is what we want; we’re not going to `privatize the world through the back door,’ ‘ he says. ‘We’re hoping to get some flexibility with our workforce. We need it desperately because of the antiquated regulations and requirements we have to live under with these collective agreements.’ TI