Our Canadian Media Guild (CMG) bargaining team is pleased to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with APTN.
 
The tentative agreement was reached on Friday March 29, 2019, and if ratified, it will come into effect on April 25, 2019 and expire on April 24, 2022.
 
The agreement provides for significant improvements to the existing pay grid. There are also other gains in members’ working conditions.

Salary grid changes and additional pay increases 
 
Under the tentative agreement, with the exception of Category 6 (researcher/writer trainee), all pay scales will now start at what was Step 2 in the previous agreement. Salary steps, including the top steps, will rise over two years.
 
Pay rates will go up by 3.5% on the anniversary of our APTN hire date, with an additional increase of 3.5% added on the next anniversary date.
 
The deal also provides additional market-rate wage adjustments for Video Journalists, Reporter / Correspondents, Investigative Journalists, and Graphic Artists. In effect, the first three steps from the previous agreement have been deleted, and three new steps have been added for these positions.
 
As well, the tentative agreement includes yearly across-the-board increases of 1.25% (Year 1), 1.00% (Year 2), and 0.75% (Year 3), on top of the improvements outlined above, for all positions.
 
Additional notes
 
Our bargaining committee had good discussions with the employer about ensuring that workplace issues are dealt with through a union-management Joint Committee. Our view is that this approach will be helpful in resolving issues as they develop.

As well, we agreed to move language about the “senior designation” out of the collective agreement. The designation will be continued by management as a performance initiative, and members who already have the designation will retain it.
 
Our bargaining team is pleased with this deal, particularly because it rewards members for our patience and the trust we’ve shown in APTN as an organization.
 
Next steps
 
We will have a membership meeting on April 17, 2019 to review the Memorandum of Agreement. The ratification vote will be held online afterwards.
 
In the meantime, here is a copy of the Memorandum of Agreement (See pages 32-35 for salary details in the tentative agreement).
 
Please feel free to reach out to anyone of us if there are questions.

 
CMG’s bargaining committee at APTN

Dennis Rondeau
Dennis Ward
Bruce Spence, President, APTN Branch
Terri Monture, CMG Staff Representative