CBC technicians' strike ends
New deal includes 10% raises
The strike by 1,800 technicians, which began Feb. 17 at the Canuck pubcaster, crippled the CBC's TV and radio networks. The labor dispute forced the national network to run a shortened version of its flagship nightly newscast, cancel much of its local programming, stop production on many of its most popular shows and program reruns instead of live programming on the all-news channel Newsworld.
Most members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) will be back on the job by Tuesday, with some even returning on Saturday night to work the broadcast of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Calgary Flames hockey game.
"Our members are very, very happy with this deal and that the strike is over," said Mike Sullivan, national representative and chief spokesperson for the union. "The CBC and our members will now focus on getting back the audiences lost and rebuilding the relationships between management and union."
Wage increases
The agreement calls for wage increases of 10 to 11% over 37 months and provides some improvements regarding job security, one of the key sticking points in the drawn-out negotiations.
The CBC had asked for some CEP members to return to work earlier than Tuesday, but, with the exception of the Saturday-night hockey broadcast, members are refusing to go back until everyone can return to the job.
"We would have liked to go back sooner, of course, but the solidarity shown during the strike continued into the return to work," Sullivan said. "CEP members weren't willing to go back and work alongside the managers and unionized supervisors who had been doing their jobs for the past seven weeks."
The main CBC network's ratings dropped by about 20% during the technicians' strike, with ratings for "The National," the flagship newscast, down around 15%. "The National," which airs daily at 10 p.m., was cut back to 20 minutes from one hour as a result of the labor dispute, and most reporters had to file their items without the use of camera crews.
