Well, it's actually happened. The two CBC Radio networks and the CBC in general have officially become crippled by the strike. It might be wrong for me to say I couldn't be happier, but let's face it: there wasn't much of a line-up this summer season, was there? Granted, I'm talking as if the summer season is dead - and with CBC management and The Canadian Media Guild at loggerheads right now, it essentially is - but if that's the price to pay to keep Tetsuro Shigematsu off my radio, I'll accept it.
I'm not callous. I feel sorry for the 5500 staffers who can't work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation due to the strike. I'm not looking forward to the spectre of a completely silent Hockey Night in Canada and I'll miss Ron MacLean's sports reporting (which is always very good, and even the haters know that - if MacLean had defected to TSN instead of Chris Cuthbert, CBC Sports would have been crippled and CBC knows it). The National isn't as good when it's pared down to thirty minutes, though the comedy program usually aired in its stead is an acceptable price to pay for the usually competent but rarely ever engaging documentary features. Still, this is the third overall national strike (CBC workers in Quebec and Moncton, New Brunswick belong to different unions - the Quebec union having gone on strike twice itself) by CBC staffers in seven years. Global doesn't have this sort of labour problem. CTV employees don't go on strike like this. Only the CBC employees do. The CBC will survive this strike - it has in 1999 and 2001 - but with the technicians out of the building and ACTRA possibly following suit, the situation looks bad for the CBC.
Do I feel sorry for either side in the labour situation, though? No. Like any broadcaster CBC has been paring itself down, attempting to reach that ultimate level of cost-efficiency for a few years. The network needs to be fiscally conservative like this. It hasn't been an easy few years for the CBC (especially with the radio networks, which have gone through an overall overhaul since 2003) but I appreciate the network's push towards overall efficiency. This means more contract workers and less full-time employees, but that's just the nature of the beast these days. The CBC didn't need its own publicists. This is no longer the CBC that stands alone as a monolith of the Canadian broadcasting landscape. There needs to be a reason for CBC to exist, and while I despise a lot of the network's programming there is an overall need for it. Like it or not, CBC Television puts more effort into its programming schedule than CTV, Global and A-Channel/CityTV put together. With the other networks, they just import a lot of American programs and add some cheap Canadian filler, seeing what works and going with that. Ivan Fecan's best work was at CBC Television, and it's due to Danylo being exposed through Comics! that Comedy Inc. is on SpikeTV right now. I don't care if the CBC is third in the Neilsens. That doesn't mean one fat load of creamery butter to me. I hope it doesn't to other viewers.
Article comments
1 - Triniman
So far, I haven't paid attention to the strike. I enjoy watching their news and documentry shows. I don't listen to Ideas enough. I appreciate CBC's intelligent offerings. But, with so many differnt entertainment choices on the tube, not to mention the Internet and the declining television viewership, I can see how CBC needs to change.
2 - locust
Lets remember first and foremost the CBC is and always will be the canadian publics.We pay for it we own it.Your blog rants are interesting and funny but if you really want changes to the sound and the viewing then let management hear you loud and clear or don't bother.A fart sounds just as good as this blog otherwise.
3 - A CBCer
I just have to say this...
We are NOT on strike. We were LOCKED OUT. There is a BIG difference.
We WANT to work, but CBC management won't let us.
4 - Curt Petrovich
Please stop referring to this as a strike. It's a lock out.
The difference between the two is at the heart of what management has termed a "labour disruption".
But infact, it's a "management disruption." Read the CBC management ads, (paid for by taxpayers money).
They clearly state management was "forced" to lock it's employees out.
They are not on strike, and perpetuating that inaccuracy does a grave disservice to the anyone interested in understanding the issues, and to those trying to resolve them.
I would like to be at work this week. Instead I am "forced" to walk around the CBC building carrying a sign. This is not my choice.
Let's all help resolve this by being clear, honest, accurate and thoughtful with Canadians who pay our salaries.
5 - Anne O'Connor
I am a recovering CBC radio addict. for almost thirty years CBC was my companion at home and in the car. That has dramatically changed. After the US election in November I turned the radio off. Weeks and weeks of talk about US politics, the Iraq invasion and Sept. 11 have warn me to a frazzle. The other programming, obviously aimed at people in their thirties have left me confused and cold. The greatest loss to me has been the end of good interviewing. It has been a very long time since I heard an interview on CBC that was not bullshit. Journalists interviewing journalists and academics... that is news? I am a supporter of unions and public broadcasting. I live close enough to the border that I can listen to NPR who have imitated the best of what CBC had to offer ( they continued with regular programming during 9/11, the invasion and the US election when we obsessed) I hope for a good resolution to the dispute. I am relly enjoying the great music that is being played! Good luck to us all.
6 - Stephen Morton
Strike vs Lockout. Oh come on! Lets not kid ourselves. The union was about to go on strike anyway. If there hadn't been a lockout, there would have at least been rotating wildcat strikes if not a full scale strike. Maybe calling it a strike is one-sided but calling it a lockout is equally so.
7 - neilemac
I'm an avid but upset CBC fan. I'm supporting the locked out workers by not watching or listening to CBC, radio and tv. Too bad, it's the only worthy broadcaster in the country. Methinks there are too many chiefs without their papers trying to cook an omelet of management that requires 21st Century innovation but the idea of contract workers is not the answer. I was personally screwed by Canada Post for being involved in their 'casual' scheme. Keep the talented communications staff I know for a fact that you have, and hire others. CBC, stop the practice of contracting out.
8 - James
CBC employees were locked out/went on strike?
I never even noticed.
Does it matter? Privatize it, and make it sink or swim. Maybe, just MAYBE, I won't have to pay so much in taxes to our overlords in Ottawa.
9 - Michelle
Clearly a lockout is much different from a strike. I hope everything is up and running again soon, cause despite the negativity illustrated here, the CBC has excellent programming. Ever since the lockout, I have turned to other news sources, and walk away feeling as though I still have no clue about what is going on in the world. I mean, as important as the news highlight of Bred And Jen getting their divorce, I expect there are more important issues taking place in our world today....
10 - A. Hutchinson
It might matter to the participants whether or not CBC staffers were "locked out" or are "on strike" but the average person in the street couldn't give a tinker's damn. CBC radio does a good job with its political and current events coverage but the rest of its stuff is garbage. I DON'T CARE about basket weaving collectives in P.E.I., I DON'T CARE to learn a few handy French phrases once a week and, my god, who is responsible for this Promo Girl idiocy? When that nonsense came on every morning I had to restrain myself from smashing my radio with whatever hard object was at hand. I agree with the poster who suggested that CBC interviewers were saps. Absolutely. They love David Suzuki, Wendy Cukier and anyone else who's world view echoes that of the CBC staffers. I once heard Wendy Cukier interviewed about gun violence and I think the most challenging question she was asked was, "And how are you today, Wendy?" As for David Suzuki, I heard a rumour to the effect that he once defecated into an urn which was placed somewhere in the CBC building and staffers have to make obeisance to it as they walk past. Choose between CBC staffers and management? Feh, a pox on both their houses. I was once an avid CBC listener, now, I need the CBC like a fish needs a bicycle - that aphorism in particular should appeal to CBC staffers. Why do so few Canadians watch CBC television and listen to CBC radio? Because so much of what they do is BORING.
11 - miglenda
I have 'Viewers Choice' as a provider, and IF it were not for the 'PPS' Channels including ones such as...'History, ..'Discovery' and the likes,..including BBC World News, I would genuinly get rid of our T.V.
I like a variety of music but by far C.B.C, radio,is possibly the best radio station in the world. NPR is O.K. but it is not a C.B.C. I often listen to 'Rock 101.1' , Country ect,. BUT....for a while, once in a while.
'ABC' the Australian Bradcasting Corp., is also not a patch on CBC.
I do agree that they, C.B.C, as a public station, should be reined in. They are so far removed from there original purpose, as a non commercial public station.
They should follow the BBC, in that the people of England pay for it,.everyone.
CBC T.V....should be as C.B.C radio is... Commercial Free.
If we never had the BBC's,the C.B.C's including the NPR.'s of the world, would you really be happy with Larry King, Wolf Blitizer and the rest of the U.S networks 'apple dumbling gangs???
As they say..'shake your head"
CNN.is a joke, along with numerous other stations,such as the 'Fox Network'. "Sir Rubert" has built his world wide empire on 'smut'. Because 'billions of people watch 'porn'..as in sheer numbers,..does this make it acceptable?
You have to pay good money to purchase anything of quality. A Hyundi is not a Mercedes although it has similar headkights. Mind you a Mercedes is not a Lexus either.
May the 'force be with you'
miqlenda
12 - bob
The CBC had it too good for too loog. No job on this earth today has absolute job security and even in the public sector. Furthermore the CBC's attitude to news programming and gathering was scornful : we have a monopoly on knowledge , only our way of covering the news is legitimate. Today with all sorts of news being generated by new technologies and varied techniques from and held camera to camera phone to blogs the CBC indeed looks like an outdated monolith groping in the dark.