Most employees at the CBC are getting ready to vote on which union will represent their interests as well as those of their coworkers. It’s winner take all for one of two unions that each currently have a strong foothold at the Corp. – the Canadian Media Guild and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. The campaign for the hearts, minds and votes of CBC staffers is in full swing and has been marked by controversy and name-calling.

Starting Nov. 3, the Canada Industrial Relations Board will mail ballots to CBC employees, excluding supervisors and management, and voters will have until Dec. 12 to respond. CBC staff in Quebec and Moncton, NB, repped by local unions, are not involved in the election.

Presently, the CMG reps more than 4,000 employees at the Corp., with one bargaining unit for editorial and production workers and another for administrative, clerical and sales staff. Meanwhile, the CEP represents 1,800 CBC technical and trades employees.

In 1999, the CMG announced its wish to merge its two units into one bargaining entity, but the CBC responded that what it wanted was to deal with only one union for all its employees. It was too costly, the broadcaster argued, to deal with three grievance committees and bargaining units. The CIRB ultimately agreed, leading to the coming election.

The CMG is a local of The Newspaper Guild Canada, which is affiliated with the Washington, DC-based Communication Workers of America, a 700,000-member union. The CMG reps employees at Canadian Press, TVOntario, APTN and Reuters. The Ottawa-based CEP, meanwhile, has a membership of 150,000, covering a wide range of sectors, from the pulp and paper industry to nurses.

The CEP is making the election largely about nationalism. Peter Murdoch, national VP, media at the CEP, does not even recognize the CMG’s moniker. He prefers to call it ‘the CWA’ or ‘the American union,’ while repeatedly categorizing his own organization as ‘a large Canadian union.’ One source at the CMG has accused the CEP of ‘wrapping itself in the Canadian flag,’ to which Murdoch replies, ‘What’s wrong with that?’

‘I find it absolutely silly that employees at Canada’s national broadcaster be represented by an American union,’ Murdoch says.

U.S. roots

Ironically, the CEP’s roots at the CBC also stem from the U.S. Shortly after the pubcaster went to air in 1952, its tech employees signed on with the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, today itself a sector of the CWA and based in Washington. NABET merged with the CEP in Canada in 1994.

‘Our members at the CBC used to belong to an American union, voted to get out of it, and don’t want to go back into it,’ Murdoch says. ‘They’re very committed.’

Murdoch recalls that the CEP had on several occasions offered the CMG to merge with it, but to no avail.

‘Rather than merge… they wanted to have this vote, because I think they felt comfortable, just on a numerical basis,’ Murdoch says.

Lise Lareau, president of the CMG and a producer at CBC Newsworld, prefers to think of her organization as ‘a homegrown CBC union.’ The CMG gained a lot of ground at the Corp. in 1993, winning in a similar election against ACTRA and CUPE, after which it took on representation of producers, freelancers and on-air personalities. In 1998, CUPE merged with the CMG, giving it bargaining rights for administrative staff as well.

Of the upcoming vote, Lareau concedes that she expects few to vote against the union to which they currently belong, which would leave her side with a significant numerical advantage. She is taking nothing for granted, however.

‘It all depends on the voter ‘turnout,” she says. ‘I’m worried that people are just going to put their ballots aside and forget about it. I am worried that there is going to be a sort of complacency on the part of Guild members – and the usual [busyness] that sets in near Christmas time.’

Lareau says that in its efforts to keep members onside, the CMG is endeavoring to have its leaders at 35 CBC locations across Canada meet each of its members face to face to listen to their concerns before the vote. Meanwhile, the CEP is using its members from other workplaces, including CTV, Global, The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, to win over CMG members via telephone and leafleting at CBC headquarters in Toronto.

‘Most of their message is not about the CBC, funny enough… [It’s] about the CEP and their structure in Canada. Very little is about their track record,’ Lareau says. ‘Our message is concentrated really on CBC issues, what our track record has been, what we’re likely to face in the future, and we’re [delivering] it with CBC employees.’

Lareau points to the CMG’s role in the past year or so in getting 250 CBC employees’ positions redefined as ‘full-time’ from ‘temporary,’ providing them with benefits. The CMG had to prove to the CBC, from the pubcaster’s own records, that there was ongoing work for these individuals, and that they were needed on a permanent basis.

As for the CEP’s track record at the CBC, Lareau feels it boils down to two events – the strike of 1999 and the lockout of 2001.

‘Little of value was achieved, particularly in the 2001 lockout, so there’s no question that that’s had an effect on how people are viewing this choice,’ Lareau says.

Needless to say, Murdoch disagrees.

‘This is the kind of whispering campaign that’s going on – ‘You know, these guys are far too militant…’ In the lockout, CEP was not there saying ‘We want more.’ It was the CBC trying to take away a lot of stuff that was in our collective agreements, and us trying to say ‘No, you don’t do that.’ And, in fact, we were able to stop some of it, but not all of it. The CBC did get some stuff out of our collective agreement,’ he says.

The present campaign took on an even more contentious tone when the CEP objected to the broadcaster that the CMG was using the CBC e-mail addresses of CMG members to send campaign messages. The problem in the CEP’s eyes is that it didn’t have the same contact information for these people, who constitute 70% of voters. At press time, the end result has been that the CMG is forbidden from e-mailing its members at work for campaign purposes.

Lareau categorizes it as frighteningly ‘Orwellian’ that a broadcaster would block access between a union and its members, while the CEP sees it differently.

‘It was like the government telling the post office to only deliver the campaign material of the Liberal Party of Canada and nobody else, because we didn’t have access,’ Murdoch says. ‘It wasn’t an issue of servicing the membership, it was an issue of access to the electorate.’

If its numerical advantage does get it the victory, the CMG believes that taking on the plight of technical workers in the digital age would be a natural extension of its present responsibilities.

‘The lines between production work and technical work are all blurring with technology,’ Lareau says. ‘There’s a lot of people who work as video journalists who cross those two lines… Most of our people do what used to be called ‘technical work.’ It’s basically just on their desk computer.’

Murdoch counters that the problems that most affect the day-to-day lives of CBC employees stem from the bigger picture of funding cuts to the pubcaster, and only a union with the size and clout of the CEP can take measures at that level.

‘Our view is to lobby government, to lobby parliamentary committees – all of that kind of work that is required to hit the source of some of the problems the CBC is facing,’ he says. He also believes CBC staff can benefit from being repped by a group with experience in private Canadian broadcasting.

‘The days of putting a fence around the CBC and having a kind of siege mentality are over,’ he adds. ‘Employees of the CBC… have got to get out and start finding out what is going on with the private broadcasters, what’s going on in the collective agreement with private broadcasters, what’s going on in terms of lobbying and where the CBC fits in the broadcasting landscape.’

By mid-December, after ballots are tallied, we should at least have a better idea where CBC employees fit in.

-www.cmg.ca

-www.cep.ca

-www.cbc.ca

-www.cirb-ccri.gc.ca