Friday, September 23, 2005
CBC 104: Money, money, money, money
The Canadian Media Guild Thursday made a modest proposal on wage increases in its latest offer to CBC.
The CMG has proposed a 60 month contract to expire March 31, 2009, with 3.5% increases every year, retroactive back to April 1, 2004, plus a $1,000 signing bonus for everyone who had worked 60 days of more in the 12 months prior to the lockout.
On the picket line Thursday, the news in the Guild newsletter extra,it seems, brought up the old split between the CEP and CMG. Many technicians, formerly members of CEP, told me "It's not enough." Many of the journalists had a reporter's reaction, not an employee's reaction: "The taxpayer will never go for it."
I heard the same reporters' sentiments at a party on Thursday night--until I mentioned what reporters and editors are paid on the Toronto newspapers and by the national wire service Canadian Press. I literally saw a jaw drop when I told them our print colleagues, with the same experience, with comparable jobs, get five to ten to fifteen thousand dollars a year more than we do.
That's why I want to point people to one of my early blogs, We have a problem
The technicians know very well that the money they are paid--at least in the big cities of Toronto and Vancouver--has been falling further and further behind their colleagues in the private sector for the past 15 years.
As I said in my original post, I make between $10,000 and $12,000 less than photo editors doing comparable jobs on the newspapers (represented by CEP) and Canadian Press (represented by my union CMG).
The impression that CBC employees are paid very well comes today from other cities and small towns where the money, paid on a national scale, is much better than those in comparable jobs. And it is a legacy of the past, more than 20 years ago, before Mulroney's cutbacks in 1984 when the money in the big cities was comparable or better. That is no longer so in those cities.
On the original blog you will find links to the contract pages for those newspapers.
Compare the contracts. For those in Toronto and Vancouver, you will see how little you are getting in comparison to those print people you see on the job every day.
In the past 15 years there was a bit of a trade off, less money in exchange for job security.
It is clear that the CBC wants to gut job security. That makes comparable salaries an issue, now and in the future. It is likely there will be some taxpayers' resistance to even the CMG's modest proposal, but for the long term health of the CBC, the money has to keep up with the marketplace.
Technorati tags
journalism, CBC, blog, news, lockout,
CBClockout,
6:30 PM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
Links to this post
The Canadian Media Guild Thursday made a modest proposal on wage increases in its latest offer to CBC.
The CMG has proposed a 60 month contract to expire March 31, 2009, with 3.5% increases every year, retroactive back to April 1, 2004, plus a $1,000 signing bonus for everyone who had worked 60 days of more in the 12 months prior to the lockout.
On the picket line Thursday, the news in the Guild newsletter extra,it seems, brought up the old split between the CEP and CMG. Many technicians, formerly members of CEP, told me "It's not enough." Many of the journalists had a reporter's reaction, not an employee's reaction: "The taxpayer will never go for it."
I heard the same reporters' sentiments at a party on Thursday night--until I mentioned what reporters and editors are paid on the Toronto newspapers and by the national wire service Canadian Press. I literally saw a jaw drop when I told them our print colleagues, with the same experience, with comparable jobs, get five to ten to fifteen thousand dollars a year more than we do.
That's why I want to point people to one of my early blogs, We have a problem
The technicians know very well that the money they are paid--at least in the big cities of Toronto and Vancouver--has been falling further and further behind their colleagues in the private sector for the past 15 years.
As I said in my original post, I make between $10,000 and $12,000 less than photo editors doing comparable jobs on the newspapers (represented by CEP) and Canadian Press (represented by my union CMG).
The impression that CBC employees are paid very well comes today from other cities and small towns where the money, paid on a national scale, is much better than those in comparable jobs. And it is a legacy of the past, more than 20 years ago, before Mulroney's cutbacks in 1984 when the money in the big cities was comparable or better. That is no longer so in those cities.
On the original blog you will find links to the contract pages for those newspapers.
Compare the contracts. For those in Toronto and Vancouver, you will see how little you are getting in comparison to those print people you see on the job every day.
In the past 15 years there was a bit of a trade off, less money in exchange for job security.
It is clear that the CBC wants to gut job security. That makes comparable salaries an issue, now and in the future. It is likely there will be some taxpayers' resistance to even the CMG's modest proposal, but for the long term health of the CBC, the money has to keep up with the marketplace.
Technorati tags
journalism, CBC, blog, news, lockout,
CBClockout,
6:30 PM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
