Peter Murdoch is in preparation mode. The social worker-turned-journalist-turned-union boss will fight one of the biggest battles for media members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union when he appears in front of the CRTC for the contentious fee-for-carriage hearings, set for Dec. 7.

It’s a hot-button issue that’s top of mind for Murdoch, aside from concerns over the future of Canwest, which earlier this month filed for creditor protection. But the seasoned VP of media at CEP isn’t one to shy away from challenges.

‘People really need their union when times are tough. If you’re not prepared to step up to that challenge during [these] times, then you probably shouldn’t be in the job,’ reckons Murdoch, who has been at the job since 2000. The Ottawa-based union reps 25,000 media workers in print and broadcast for employers such as The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Rogers, CTV and Global.

Murdoch, who graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Western Ontario, found his calling in union work during the recession of the early 1980s, when he was senior editor at the Hamilton Spectator. He recalls a drastic change in the way the newspaper industry was approaching journalism.

‘They turned to ‘McNewspapers’… instead of having longer, in-depth, investigative stories, [many] turned to a USA Today-style newspaper,’ he explains, adding that many unhappy employees were laid off. ‘Things were getting ugly in the newsroom, so I turned to the union to help out with my colleagues.’

Murdoch became the national rep for the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild, which merged with CEP in 1996.

The union boss has his hands full these days with broadcaster woes, particularly that of debt-laden Canwest, which faces a breakup of its assets – including the Global Television network and National Post newspaper – as restructuring gets underway at the once-prosperous media empire.

‘It’s depressing… we’ve got about four to six months to see what happens during this restructuring. I just met with [Global] folks and everybody is worried, but they’ve been through a few years now of pretty drastic cuts by Canwest,’ observes Murdoch, who is also preoccupied with pleading the case of ‘struggling’ broadcasters to the CRTC. He worries about the prospects of small- to medium-market television stations, a number of which have gone dark, including Brandon, MB’s CKX-TV.

‘The stakes are very high for our members, for Canadian broadcasting and for democracy. If we don’t have local news, who is going to be covering your local hospitals, school boards, justice system, et cetera?’ he laments.

One solution is the controversial fee-for-carriage that would allow broadcasters to charge cable companies such as Bell, Rogers and Cogeco for their signals.

‘We’re singing from the same songbook as the broadcasters in terms of trying to get fat-cat cable companies to pony up for local television programming,’ says Murdoch, noting that in 2008, cable and satellite companies made $10 billion from broadcasting and spent less than one-twentieth ($351 million) on Canadian programming.

By comparison, over-the-air specialty and pay-TV services generated $5 billion and spent almost one-third ($1.6 billion) on local programming, according to Murdoch, who says he’s also concerned over the cable companies’ clout in Ottawa.

‘We know that the cable companies, for whatever reason, seem to have a fair bit of influence in the Prime Minister’s Office. We hope that in the long run the interests of Canadians and Canadian programming will trump whatever cable guys have in the way of lobbying,’ he says.

Despite the daunting issues, Murdoch notes there have been many highlights at the job, including the CEP’s role in the creation of the Local Programming Improvement Fund, which ensures viewers in small markets continue to receive diverse local programming. (The CRTC projects that LPIF will total $102 million in the 2009/10 broadcast year.)

‘Unions don’t get great rewards every day… we take our small successes pretty heartily and don’t get too depressed at the seats,’ Murdoch says.

Et cetera

• Born in Lancashire, Eng., where his father was stationed with the Canadian Forces. ‘I was army brat.’

• First job was delivering newspapers in Ottawa

• An avid reader, especially of nonfiction books about the Middle East

• Visited Iraq twice alongside the International Federation of Journalists to lobby the government to improve safety of Iraqi journalists