The Canadian Media Guild is asking the federal labour minister to appoint a conciliator to help settle a number of issues that remain unresolved in negotiating a new collective agreement for editorial staff at APTN.

Bargaining on key fundamental issues has come to an impasse:

The pay cut
Management continues to propose to tie employee progression on the salary scales to its flawed performance review system. Under APTN’s proposal, if an employee was graded “unsatisfactory” in just one category of their annual performance review, they would not be entitled a salary increase. If an employee was graded “needs improvement” in just two categories, they would also not be entitled to a salary increase.

We cannot agree to let the sole, unscrutinized and subjective opinion of management determine whether or not an employee will get their annual salary increase. Under this scenario, an APTN manager could deny an increase because someone submitted time sheets late, or kept a messy desk. The effect is to deny employees pay increases based on their increased experience and value to the broadcaster. This is an outright attack on the fundament rights of the editorial staff and we will not accept it.

Free work
APTN is also refusing to discuss the elimination of overtime averaging. Averaging is used to reduce the cost of employee labour by avoiding overtime payments. It’s a practice that makes the concept of overtime work meaningless . There can be no justification for exploitation of APTN employees.

Keeping work in-house
APTN management is not prepared to make a commitment to its employees. We think it’s fair that people who built the organization share in its future. Management is not prepared to consider a “no contracting out” clause as part of the collective agreement.

The bargaining committee believes we’ve gone as far as possible in negotiations, so the Guild will be applying to the Federal Minister of Labour to appoint a conciliator in our continued effort to reach a peaceful solution. Once appointed, the conciliator will meet with both parties to help us overcome the impasse.

We will let you know when that meeting is scheduled and its outcome. If you have any questions, please contact any member of the Guild bargaining committee.

What’s next
In the coming weeks we will be holding a membership meeting to go over the issues at the table. We will also be discussing the options available to us to gain a fair contract.

Your bargaining committee is:

Greg Taylor, CMG-APTN Branch member
Cheryl McKenzie, CMG-APTN Branch member
Bruce Spence, CMG-APTN Branch member
Dan Zeidler, CMG Staff Representative
Dan Oldfield, Sr. CMG Staff Representative, Lead Negotiator