Hi Canadian Media Guild, I’m Sam. I have served as your national director for precarious workers for a few months and am seeking your vote to continue!

For most of the last decade I have been and continue to be a precarious worker. I’ve worked for two media startups that provided no job security and eventually found my way to being a temp at CBC Edmonton, where I bounce between video editing, control room work for both TV and radio and reporting. In fact, as I write this, I’m sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring with only one shift in the foreseeable future. I’m sure to my fellow precarious workers, this is a familiar narrative.  

While I am one of the newer members of the National Executive Committee, I’ve held director roles for various community and media organizations. Most notably, I served a term as president of Canadian University Press overseeing a coalition of campus media across the country. Managing the often competing interests of people from different cities and provinces is a tough task, especially when some regions are louder than others. Indeed, being a precarious worker is much like working in a smaller centre where you have to fight just to get attention when the conversation is dominated by places with more resources.

As your director for precarious workers, I pledge to continue to be a strong voice for the underdog around the NEC table. To do this, I want to make it easy to report instances of temp abuse across all of our branches so we can face management armed with data about where the worst offenders are. I want to shift the culture to one where all our workers become advocates for temps rather than just accept that they’re second-class members of our workforce. Because when our precarious workers can thrive, we are all stronger.