CBC BOARD BACKS MANAGEMENT Peter Rakobowchuk – Globe and Mail The CBC's board of directors has backed management at the public broadcaster as a lockout of 5,500 workers continued into its sixth week.
The board said in a statement Wednesday it wants a negotiated settlement with the Canadian Media Guild but that CBC management proposals are reasonable given funding expectations.
CBC president Robert Rabinovitch welcomed the board's support.
“The board did a comprehensive review and was very satisfied with the mandate that they had given us and encouraged us to continue to negotiate,” Mr. Rabinovitch told reporters.
“If both sides will negotiate and try to find a good deal, then we will able to make progress.”
Union president Lise Lareau was disappointed.
“It's status quo, I don't see anything that changes,” Ms. Lareau said at the hotel where the board met.
“It's shocking that, after six weeks, you would be happy with just letting it go for as long as it takes to get a deal.”
She suggested the board may be using the locked-out journalists, writers and technicians as pawns in a game to get more funding from the government.
“I've never felt this was about money ... this was about their ability to control staff in a more hands-on way.”
The main sticking point remains management's wish to have more flexibility in the hiring of casual and contract workers, something the union sees as a threat to job security.
CBC employees in Quebec and Moncton, N.B., are not affected by the lockout.
Ian Morrison, spokesman for the independent watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said that until now Mr. Rabinovitch was “wearing personally” the lockout decision.
“But with this statement, the board is backing Mr. Rabinovitch and turning their backs on the shareholders, the people of Canada.”
Mr. Morrison said it's now up to the federal government to get more involved because Canadians are being denied access to their radio and TV stations.
The next step should be for Parliament's heritage committee to call Mr. Rabinovitch as a witness to justify his lockout tactics, Mr. Morrison said.
The lockout began Aug. 15 after 15 months of negotiations between management and the union, which came to the table this year empowered with a huge strike mandate from its work force. |