Rue Frontenac is reporting that the Syndicat de communications de Radio-Canada has reached a deal in principle with the employer and is presenting it to members for a vote this week.
The SCRC is the smaller of the two unions representing staff at CBC/Radio-Canada. It covers all employees in Quebec and in Moncton, N.B., which are predominantly French-speaking, but it covers employees in either language in those areas, which means the SCRC also covers anglophone employees in Montreal.
The rest of Canada is covered by the Canadian Media Guild, which famously got locked out in 2005.
If approved, the deal would be for three years.
The SCRC famously got locked out in 2002.
Doc Brown, you beat me to that! The CSN union also covers the workers at the anglophone station in Québec City (a more accurate description than “anglophone workers” as obviously francophones can work for the anglophone stations and anglophones for the francophone ones if they are fluently bilingual) – AND more interestingly still, the staff of the Northern Service stations up in places where Inuktitut, Cree and other Aboriginal languages get airtime. Telecommunications remain extremely important for the people up in those sparsely-populated, harsh areas and for their cultural survival.
And conversely, the staff at the francophone stations outside Québec and Moncton – especially Ottawa, but smaller stations in Toronto and points west (I don’t know if there are any east of Moncton – perhaps that station covers all Atlantic Canada from l’Acadie)?
There are certainly more than two unions at Radio-Canada.
SCRC represents basically people involved in programme content, e.g. on-air hosts, production assistants and researchers for individual programmes, as well as newsroom staff.
STARF represents technicial staff (e.g. studio and control room technicians), TV cameramen (if I’m not mistaken), as well as craftspeople such as set builders (where those jobs haven’t been contracted out).
SCFP represents clerical staff. (That’s my union.)
In addition there’s a sort of union for some producers (mainly TV, I think, as I know of no radio producers in it) and another for lower management positions.
I should have clarified, I’m speaking of editorial/on-air staff here.