The Canadian Media Guild has named five members to the new national grievance committee at the CBC. They are:

Philippe Bourbeau, Vancouver
Elaine Janes, Halifax
Gerry Jones, Regina
Bob Waller, Toronto
Karin Wells, Toronto

Bruce May is the staff representative on the Grievance Committee.

Preliminary meetings have been held with management to prepare the new dispute resolution process, which puts more emphasis on resolving conflicts at the local level. Local executives and grievance handlers will get a package of information shortly with details about the new system. The national committee will begin to deal with new grievances (filed under the new collective agreement) in April.

Meanwhile, CMG is meeting regularly with the Corporation to try to clear up the backlog of grievances filed under the previous collective agreements. Most of them have already been referred to arbitration; however the Guild and management are discussing a number of grievances with the aim of finding satisfactory resolutions. The two sides have committed to try to resolve as many outstanding grievances as possible before the April meeting of the new grievance committee. Those grievances filed under the previous agreements that can’t be settled will then be referred immediately to arbitration.

Given the April deadline, local grievance handlers are urged to either settle or refer to the national level any outstanding grievances under the previous agreements as soon as possible.

For more information, contact Bruce May (bruce@cmg.ca) at 416-591-5333 or 1-800-465-4149.