Unionized workers at Ontario public broadcaster TVO are officially on strike.

The Canadian Media Guild (CMG), which represents 74 journalists, producers and education workers at TVO, announced Monday (Aug. 21) that workers have walked off the job as of 10:30 a.m. ET. This marks the first-ever strike for TVO workers, according to a CMG spokesperson.

“While it is unfortunate that we have not yet been able to come to a collective bargaining agreement with our CMG employees, TVO Media Education Group remains committed to continuing discussions with CMG and finding a resolution,” said Jeffrey L. Orridge, CEO of TVO, in a statement.

“We are ready to meet with CMG at any time and we remain confident that we can bring this to a resolution that works for both parties,” he continued.

TVO said its current affairs programming, which includes its flagship series The Agenda with Steve Paikin, will be impacted as a result of the strike. However, it says there “will be no changes to TVOKids,” and that its programs and documentaries will still be available on the broadcaster channel and the TVO Today app.

When asked whether the strike will impact production and development of original programming, a TVO spokesperson said “there is no impact at this time to either our TVOKids or our documentary programming.”

CMG has been negotiating with TVO employers over the current collective agreement, which expired Oct. 27, 2022.

The parties have failed to agree on wage increases for workers, and a request from the Ministry of Education to waive a section in the current agreement that stipulates that education contract workers must become permanent after 24 weeks of continuous employment.

CMG has previously stated that it will not agree to the request out of a concern for a lack of job security and health benefits for temporary workers. TVO argued that the “arbitrary deadline” has resulted in contracts being terminated early, and that it has added 20 permanent workers represented by the union in the last year.

The union initially set a strike position date for Friday (Aug. 18), but talks continued over the weekend. The majority of TVO union workers voted unanimously on a strike mandate earlier this year during the bargaining process. They held a rally last week to raise support for union workers.

Updated with comments from TVO

Photo courtesy of CMG