On March 31, the Canadian Media Guild made an application to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to merge our two bargaining certificates at APTN. There are currently two different bargaining units at APTN – one for editorial workers and another for those working in technical operations. Although each unit currently has its own separate collective agreement, the two are largely identical and they share an expiry date of April 24, 2011.

APTN management doesn’t dispute the logic of merging the two units into one, and we expect that the CIRB will grant our request. That means that the next round of bargaining will be for a single collective agreement to cover all Guild members at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

We encourage all Guild members at APTN to take a look at the existing collective agreements. In the coming months we’ll be conducting a survey to find out what improvements you’d like to see. We will also be looking for volunteers to serve on the bargaining committee that will negotiate our next collective agreement.

We’ll keep you posted on developments as they occur.

Allan Mckay
Derek Christianson
Bruce Spence
Vincent Proteau
Terri Monture, CMG Staff Representative