Friday, September 16, 2005
CBC 85: What happens to casuals when they have cancer
It's becoming quickly apparent that in some circles the dispute over the cut down, replacement worker, cobbled together broadcast of the Terry Fox anniversary special is now being spun into we, the locked out workers don't care about Terry Fox or cancer.
So to paraphrase Bill Clinton, it is about cancer, stupid, people with cancer. Like me.
I am now a locked-out CBC staff producer. When I had cancer in 1993 I was a casual at CTV.
So this is what happens when you have cancer and you are a casual.
In October 1993, I went to my doctor after I noticed that one of my testicles was feeling not smooth, but rather like sandpaper.
At the time I was a casual writer on the national desk at CTV. I had started in 1988 and was still getting the same pay per shift, $170 that I had received when I started. (CTV would not raise the writers' pay per shift until 2003, according to friends who continued as casual writers).
I was given a priority appointment for an ultrasound the next morning and by that afternoon the urologist had diagnosed it as early seminoma (testicular cancer). I told my family and close friends. And waited, not too long, I was scheduled for surgery in the first week of December, 1993.
That, of course, is when my income stopped. As a casual, of course, I had no medical benefits, but I did have the complete attention of our Canadian health care system, a system too many people with staff jobs and guaranteed benefits want to destroy.
Without the benefits I was in a ward which was also an holding cell, to speak, for an elderly man who had Alzheimer's and screamed all night.
The surgery went well, the cancer was confirmed. And I got myself back to work at the CTV newsroom as soon as I could. Then, after Christmas, a meeting the oncologist. The decision was because the seminoma was caught early, I did not need chemo but I did need a long bout of radiation treatment.
Radiation treatment can make you very tired.
I arranged the early afternoon appointments so I could go into work at CTV whenever I was on the schedule.
So through the winter of 1994, I left my then apartment at Yonge and St. Clair, took the subway and bus to Sunnybrook Hospital, had my radiation treatment and then took the hour long subway and bus ride to the CTV studios in Agincourt. Again, if I hadn't, I would have had no income. I worked my shift and although my friends know I am a bit of a tea addict, I got through those hours with even more tea than I normally do.
My friends at CTV were supportive. To the CTV corporation I was just another disposable writer.
I have been cancer free since the radiation treatment was complete in late March 1994.
I still go to see my oncologist once a year.
I left CTV and joined CBC, as a casual, in November 1994.
At CBC, of course, I have seen friends and colleagues also diagnosed with cancer and they have the full range of benefits, including short or long term disability leave and extended health care.
What is going to happen to casuals in the future if the triumvirate, Robert Rabinvotich, Richard Stursberg and Jane Chalmers get their way? Will we see them dragging themselves into the Toronto Broadcast Centre after their radiation or chemo treatments because they have no other way of paying the bills?
So as the spinners like Jason MacDonald spin what happened at Signal Hill over the last couple of days, let's remember that this is about people.
Technorati tags
journalism, CBC, blog, news, lockout,
CBClockout,cancer,
Terry Fox,
10:31 AM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
Links to this post
It's becoming quickly apparent that in some circles the dispute over the cut down, replacement worker, cobbled together broadcast of the Terry Fox anniversary special is now being spun into we, the locked out workers don't care about Terry Fox or cancer.
So to paraphrase Bill Clinton, it is about cancer, stupid, people with cancer. Like me.
I am now a locked-out CBC staff producer. When I had cancer in 1993 I was a casual at CTV.
So this is what happens when you have cancer and you are a casual.
In October 1993, I went to my doctor after I noticed that one of my testicles was feeling not smooth, but rather like sandpaper.
At the time I was a casual writer on the national desk at CTV. I had started in 1988 and was still getting the same pay per shift, $170 that I had received when I started. (CTV would not raise the writers' pay per shift until 2003, according to friends who continued as casual writers).
I was given a priority appointment for an ultrasound the next morning and by that afternoon the urologist had diagnosed it as early seminoma (testicular cancer). I told my family and close friends. And waited, not too long, I was scheduled for surgery in the first week of December, 1993.
That, of course, is when my income stopped. As a casual, of course, I had no medical benefits, but I did have the complete attention of our Canadian health care system, a system too many people with staff jobs and guaranteed benefits want to destroy.
Without the benefits I was in a ward which was also an holding cell, to speak, for an elderly man who had Alzheimer's and screamed all night.
The surgery went well, the cancer was confirmed. And I got myself back to work at the CTV newsroom as soon as I could. Then, after Christmas, a meeting the oncologist. The decision was because the seminoma was caught early, I did not need chemo but I did need a long bout of radiation treatment.
Radiation treatment can make you very tired.
I arranged the early afternoon appointments so I could go into work at CTV whenever I was on the schedule.
So through the winter of 1994, I left my then apartment at Yonge and St. Clair, took the subway and bus to Sunnybrook Hospital, had my radiation treatment and then took the hour long subway and bus ride to the CTV studios in Agincourt. Again, if I hadn't, I would have had no income. I worked my shift and although my friends know I am a bit of a tea addict, I got through those hours with even more tea than I normally do.
My friends at CTV were supportive. To the CTV corporation I was just another disposable writer.
I have been cancer free since the radiation treatment was complete in late March 1994.
I still go to see my oncologist once a year.
I left CTV and joined CBC, as a casual, in November 1994.
At CBC, of course, I have seen friends and colleagues also diagnosed with cancer and they have the full range of benefits, including short or long term disability leave and extended health care.
What is going to happen to casuals in the future if the triumvirate, Robert Rabinvotich, Richard Stursberg and Jane Chalmers get their way? Will we see them dragging themselves into the Toronto Broadcast Centre after their radiation or chemo treatments because they have no other way of paying the bills?
So as the spinners like Jason MacDonald spin what happened at Signal Hill over the last couple of days, let's remember that this is about people.
Technorati tags
journalism, CBC, blog, news, lockout,
CBClockout,cancer,
Terry Fox,
10:31 AM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
