cbcworkerbee

New Blog "Assorted Nonsense"

2005-10-12T21:20:00.000-04:00

I'm blogging at Assorted Nonsense now for any that are interested. Just got it up and running so it doesn't look that hot yet... give me a year or two.

See ya...

Pining for the Fjords...

2005-10-06T18:30:00.000-04:00

Not completely dead yet...

Just a quick note to let people know that although soon I'll no longer be updating this blog, neither will I be deleting it. It will remain online as long as Blogger will allow it.

So there.

I'll post a link to my new blog as soon as I have it set up. In the meantime, you'll find me here.

Farewell

2005-10-04T12:49:00.000-04:00

It's a lockout blog and the lockout is over. So I will be winding down this blog. I'll start another blog elsewhere soon, though. It'll be a more personal blog, dwelling rather more on fiction writing, which is the kind of writing I do when I'm not blogging every day. If you drop back later I'll have a link up. Hopefully. If I ever get around to it. Please feel free to drop by. Although I won't be offended if it's not your cup of tea.

This is my "farewell lockout post," and it goes something like this:

Congratulations to our negotiating team for their success. My admiration to all my fellow picketers for hanging in there, and prevailing. (Okay, this is going to start sounding like a credit roll...) Thank you Laurence for your encouragement and company on the line, also Ron for your excellent conversation and for buying me those fries, and Kent, whose wit I sometimes stole for the purposes of this blog. Kathy, it was great hanging out with you again, and John, and Carlos, and Ian, thanks for the use of your hat, and Dave the Picket Marshall, you were cool, and I know it's foolish to do this because you always leave someone out, and if I did, I apologize, feel free to curse at me in the comments section.

Aigle, you really are the coolest blogger (and Happy Birthday, by the way!), John Gushue, you had all the info when I needed it and thanks for the links. Ouimet, you are one of us, more than human (although if I find out you really are a cat I won't be the least bit surprised, you certainly have the necessary poise and dignity). Tessa, thanks for the encouragement via your reduxes, they kept me motivated. Drone, it pissed me off every time the subject of blogs came up on the line and yours was the first name out of everybody's mouth, but there's a reason for that, your posts never failed to be compelling. Robin, you da man, your posts rocked. Justin Beach, Cindy, Cold Feet, Tom, Jennifer, Shoot Both Sides, Philly, Dan, and on and on and on, it was great blogging with you all. And we all know Tod's a God... amen. Thanks Tod. Again, sorry if I left anybody out, feel free to curse at me in the comments section if I did.

Leaving you for last, Matt, you get special mention, because folks, Matt really spurred me on, it's hard keeping up with Matt quality wise because he's a funny, funny man and a damned good friend. Thanks Matt. You didn't have to hit the line but you did anyway. I'm looking forward to working with you again.

I gotta thank my wife and kids, too, for putting up with me on the computer all the time. It became an obsession, one that frankly I'm happy to let go for a bit.

Now (deep breath)... I feel that I have to take ownership of my words, that if I don't pin a name to them they'll mean little or nothing. I sincerely hope that they were a positive force in the universe, that they helped people, and our cause. I don't think I ever wrote anything mean-spirited, and if I was ever harsh or angry it's because, well, I was feeling harsh or angry, I take nothing back. If anybody holds anything against me as a result of this blog... well, I'm sorry you feel that way.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Best to you all.

Regards,

Joe Mahoney
CBC Radio A&E

We Won

2005-10-04T00:16:00.000-04:00

This gentleman's sign sums up the sentiments of the day. Most of the people I spoke to today feel that we won. Of course, that's without seeing the final agreement, and I understand that some of the techs are concerned about overtime provisions, and there are a few other concerns.

But I believe that we've won, and more than that, we just may have experienced something unique. Apparently we are the envy of the labour world. We're being studied to see why our communication strategies proved so effective, and why our morale was so high. I'm not sure that what we did right was necessarily the result of any great strategy on our part; I think it was simply the inevitable result of throwing 5500 of the most creative people in the country out on the street. But the Guild was absolutely right to foster the festive atmosphere on the picket line in Toronto. It made it fun, boosted morale exponentially, and I daresay there are elements of this lockout that I will actually miss, such as concerts in the park, and hanging out with old and new friends.

One person I spoke to feels that management probably believes that they won, and they may well believe that, because I believe that there's a huge gulf between our world view and theirs. When we get back inside, these two world views will collide, and it's going to make for a very interesting time. A very strained time.

Almost everybody I spoke to today had mixed feelings about the end of the lockout. Me too. We're happy to have our pay reinstated, but we're none too happy about going back to work for this dysfunctional Corporation. To those managers who might respond, "Well, if you don't like your jobs, go elsewhere" (and I have had a manager say that to me recently), I need only point out that that attitudes like that are a major part of the problem.

Look at this fellow on the left. Really... what is up with that? Is he looking for trouble? Sadly, the answer is probably "yes." A fellow picketer told me that Stursberg is considered a "provocateur." I glanced up this afternoon and spotted him about to enter the Broadcast Centre and snapped this shot as he was quickly surrounded by picketers hissing and booing him. Several challenged him with questions, such as was he happy with the deal, why did he initiate the lockout, etc. His answers were pat and uninformative. One picketer called him "a slippery duck, that one."

To any managers reading this, be advised that you that are going to have to treat us with kid gloves upon our return. You should probably not attempt to placate us with pizza and embarrassing platitudes. I would love to know what the high priced consultants are telling you. "Give them lots and lots of money, effect a few strategic resignations, and leave them the hell alone to do their work" would be my advice. Oh, and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. And/or beer.

Better hide any spare pens you've got kicking around, too. There's plenty of speculation as to exactly how many pens we'll have to steal to make up for our lost wages. Prepare for plenty of stress leave, there'll be a bit of that... oh, and don't try to argue that you were actually right in your contract demands and we've all just been fooled by Guild rhetoric. I promise you that that will NOT go over well.

Myself, I'm going to have a hard time talking to managers for a little while. I know that most middle managers weren't necessarily on senior management's side, but still... it's just how I feel right now. This whole thing is going to take some time.

Probably a lot of time.

It's Over (For Real)

2005-10-03T07:56:00.000-04:00

(I keep expanding this post... my wife says, "Aren't you in a rush to get out picketing? She's right, of course. Nevertheless...)

Wow... I couldn't wait up last night so found out about it this morning. Course we still have to ratify this puppy and I've seen few of the details. I'm picketing today; should be an interesting day on the line.

Thanks to the mediators for helping bring this to a conclusion.

I appreciate that there must have been a lot of hard work involved in wrapping this up and I don't want to rain anybody's parade, but gee, folks, the fact that we have come to an agreement means that it was possible to come to an agreement all along. Surely we could have done so without all of this nonsense. Please let's remember that the next time round.

My wife says, shouldn't you just be happy? She's right of course (doesn't she ever get tired of being right? Guess not...) She says maybe there wouldn't have been an agreement without this action. That may be the sad truth; if you liken it to World War Two, few would deny that that action was necessary. Unfortunate in the extreme, but necessary.

I'll continue this blog until ratification, then probably post my last post the day it's ratified (if it's ratified). I MAY... I say MAY.... reveal my ultra secret identity at that time, for the two and a half people that give a rat's ass. I've always been a little ashamed of the anonymity.

Or maybe not. Have to see the forgive and forget clause in the agreement, first.

In the meantime... see you on the line.

Breaking News

2005-10-02T22:41:00.000-04:00

Guild bargaining update - October 3, 2005
Talks between the Canadian Media Guild and CBC management went on until midnight Sunday on the two main remaining issues in the lockout: whether to reinstate free coffee from coast to coast and whether that coffee should or should not be decaffeinated. The two sides are resuming discussions this morning and indications are that talks will continue well into the year 2021. A 16 year “cone of silence” went into effect at 12:01am this morning, barring communication from either side with one another. Exactly how this will affect the talks remains unclear.

Well, that's what I'm expecting, anyway.

Hope I'm wrong.

The Fine Print

2005-10-01T20:39:00.000-04:00

In an effort to save some much needed money, my wife decided to cancel her gym membership. The timing was right; the membership was for eighteen months, which ended at the beginning of September. We assumed that it would simply expire. Just to be sure, my wife asked me to check the Mastercard statement online to make sure that no more payments were coming out.

Payments were still coming out.

I got out the contract and noticed a clause we had overlooked. It said that the membership would not expire unless we contacted the gym (which, for the sake of this discussion, I shall simply refer to as BODY BOOMERS).

Fine. We phoned the gym (BODY BOOMERS, in case you were wondering) and they said that we had to stop by and tell them in person. My wife was annoyed, but she agreed. So later that afternoon we stopped by to tell them in person. I waited in the car with the kids while she went into the gym (which, as you might recall, I've decided for the purposes of this discussion simply to refer to as BODY BOOMERS.)

About two minutes later my normally quite reasonable wife came storming back to the car in what I believe is technically referred to as an "apoplectic fit." "You deal with them," she said, presumably to me, as opposed to one of the kids.

So I went in to deal with them. Thinking, we're gonna get this sorted out right away, and not give a cent more to this... this BODY BOOMERS than we have to, especially what with me being locked out of my job and all. A woman was at the counter talking to this big, hairy looking character, both of them sporting name tags, and they didn't look especially unfriendly, so I launched right in. "Look, I just want to get this settled right away, what do we have to do, is there some kind a form to fill out? 'Cause we'd like to sign it right now."

The woman said, quite reasonably, "There's no form for your wife to fill out right now. First she has to provide us with two months notice, then she has to make an appointment, then she has to come in, swallow a live wildebeest whole with the entire club looking on, and then, if she's lucky, and we're in a really really really good mood, then maybe, MAYBE we'll stop charging your Mastercard our ridiculously overpriced fees." (WARNING: the preceding dialogue may have contained some slightly fabricated elements.)

"Look," I said, in my best Clint Eastwood, which on a good day sounds rather more like a really good Don Knotts: "Just give me the damn form."

"Hey, don't get upset at us, pal," the hairy guy said, quite reasonably. "We're just employees here. And anyway, the whole wildebeest thing is right here in the contract, plain as day."

"Where?" I asked.

He got out a super duper high falutin' electron microscope thingie and we took a really good look at the contract. And right there, sure enough, in a perfectly legible font really quite a bit larger than several subatomic particles put together, I spied the offensive clause. No doubt about it, my wife and I were sunk.

"That's... open to interpretation," I huffed, and stormed out.

"What if they get collection agencies after us? It could get really nasty," my wife told me later, after I informed her of my nefarious plan just to cancel the Mastercard and let the chips fall where they may.

"Hmm," I said, after which I informed her of my revised plan, which consisted mainly of her giving BODY BOOMERS several months notice, making appointments with BODY BOOMERS representatives, and quite possibly swallowing whole a certain kind of antelope hailing from the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem of Tanzania (sometimes known as a "gnu").

Moral of the story: I'm sure I don't have to tell you, except to say that it involves fine print and gnus (sometimes known as "Wildebeests").

A Day in the Life

2005-09-30T23:47:00.001-04:00

Tod Maffin in Simcoe Park

We all know where we sit in terms of negotiations, there's no use in belabouring that, so allow me to quickly dispense with today's latest rumour before getting on to the meat and potatoes part of this evening's post.

Today's latest rumour: Managers inside are saying the best case situation is that we'll be back to work in a week, and the worst case scenario is that we'll be back to work in two weeks.

Yes, I know... yawn! We've heard it all before.

So on with the post, which today features a day in the life of, well, me. I expect you'll find it not too different than a day in the life of, well, you. (Feel free to skip to another blog if this isn't your cup of tea.)

I hit the line about 10:45am and signed in. I was about to write down "10:45am" when someone said, "Ten forty five!" as if I had been on the verge of lying about my start time and he bloody well knew it. Now, to be honest, I had briefly considered writing 10:30am, thus buying me more time, because I was flirting with the idea of signing out at some point and seeing a movie. But my conscience managed to beat the stern man hovering before me; I had already decided to be honest. Damn that pesky conscience!

I said, "What, don't you trust me?" The fellow mumbled something resembling an explanation for his gruffness, and then asked me if I would be a picket captain. Slightly irked, I said I would think about it.

Straight away, I ran into a television journalist with whom I had both attended High School and worked at two private radio stations before both of us joined the CBC within a couple of years of each other. He told me amusing stories about the writer Tom Wolfe (..."he gets so worked up about deadlines that he sometimes writes on the toilet") and then we parted ways when I ran into a retired producer who had just popped down to say hello.

These days conversations on the line don't often relate to the lockout. My producer friend and I discussed child rearing. "Used to be the mother would threaten misbehaving children with, 'Just wait 'til your father gets home!' Nowadays the father threatens the children with, 'Let's see what your mother thinks about that!' It's been quite a generational shift."

A few more laps and then it was time for Tod Maffin, delivering his Future of the CBC speech live in Simcoe park. It's a good speech, replete with lots of Penguin Cafe Orchestra music and good thoughts on our future. I didn't agree with absolutely everything Tod said, but it's a welcome addition to a valuable conversation by an intelligent, passionate advocate for public broadcasting. And my quibbles are just that, quibbles.

Afterward I did a few laps with the talented Laurence Stevenson...

...shown here with radio producer Steve Wadhams explaining our situation to a couple of interested young men. I was trying to get a picture of Steve and Laurence alone but these guys must have talked for... well, I don't know, really, I got impatient and left after about three hours (okay, maybe it just felt like three hours). It had been my intention to get a picture for a post entitled "Steve and his personal walkman, Laurence..."

Because, you see, walking with Laurence is like having your own human walkman with you, as he strums on his (I forget what the thing's called, but it looks like a large ukelele) as you picket around the building. It's quite pleasant; I highly recommend it.

Soon it was time for a break. I take my breaks here:

I try not to buy anything, because (obviously) I can't afford it these days. I'm not always successful.

Later, someone told me about a secret manager entrance... one of those places they sneak into to avoid the picket line. Feeling intrepid, I went for a look:

I found one here, on level one of the parking garage. Just for fun I snapped a shot of the security guards as they snapped one of me snapping one of them snapping one of me... or something like that. "I smiled for you, now you smile for me," one of them said to me.

Countless laps later, my brain was reduced to trying to figure out what used to be at this corner, the one where the condominiums now sit:

I'm sure it was a parking lot, but somebody told me it wasn't, it was something else.

It was a parking lot, dammit, stop screwing with my brain!

And wait a minute... is that... could it be... trees up there?

That's just bizarre.

Well, I would go on, but it's late and you get the gist. A day on the line, much like any other.

Allow me to finish with:

"D'uhhh... d'uhhh... d'uhhh? D'uhhh?"

A cheap shot, I know, but I just couldn't resist. Hey, he started it! ...umm...

Oh great, now I sound like my kids.

One of us needs a time out.

Outta Here

2005-09-30T08:07:00.000-04:00

Okay, off to picket, so no new posts 'til tonight... or tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out Matt's latest... thank God for Matt or I don't think I would have survived this thing.

What do you mean you've already seen it? What do you mean you check out his blog before mine?!

Ah, it's okay.

I always check out his blog first too. :-)

Tod Speaks

2005-09-29T23:39:00.000-04:00

On the 1% chance you haven't read about this on Tod's Blog or elsewhere:

Hey folks!

Tomorrow at Simcoe Park in Toronto at 2 pm, Tod Maffin is going to be giving a brief talk featuring some really exciting ideas about how the CBC could potentially work in the future. Tod has worked tirelessly to help the nation's broadcaster. He's given a lot of his time, developed a website and blog to make sure we all have a place across the country to check in and see how our brothers and sisters in arms are faring. PLEASE if you can, come on down and support Tod, bring everyone you can, and even more importantly, let management see how much we all believe in creating a vibrant national broadcaster. He's got some amazing ideas.

Please come,

Thanks

Cathi Bond

I'll be there, lurking anonymously amongst the crowd...

Blue Collar Blues

2005-09-29T18:30:00.000-04:00

A teacher friend of mine was involved in a labour dispute a few years ago, out on strike for two, maybe three weeks. I recall hearing about it and thinking that I really should give him a call, offer my support. At the time I'd already been on a picket line at least once, perhaps twice. But time went by and I never picked up the phone. Too busy; they settled before I could call.

I try to remember this when I think of all the people that I haven't heard from during the lockout. Most of my family have checked in (except one sister, and I forgive her because, well, that's just her). This lockout is more public than the CEP labour disputes I've been involved in; as a result I've heard from a lot more people than ever before. Often it is the first thing out of people's mouths when I see them. But there are a lot that haven't checked in, and I can't say as I really blame them, having dropped the ball myself on that score.

There is, however, one batch of people that do have me feeling a little irked. And that's the people with whom I have a professional relationship, that are only too happy to lean on me when I'm gainfully employed. I can think of several writers, musicians, actors, freelance producers and more, all of whom have made money as a result of their relationship with me, some of whom have made a lot of money and furthered their careers, not to mention realized a dream or two, thanks to our professional relationship. And with the exception of two, I have not heard from any of these people during the lockout. You can bet your derriere I'll hear from them when I get back inside.

Of course, they live busy lives just like the rest of us, so I know that I will feel a little miffed for awhile and then forget about it. I'm confident that the two that I'm in touch with now really mean it when they ask me how I'm doing; I suppose if the others did the same it would represent no more than a mercenary gesture, designed to procure more work once I'm back inside.

Just the same, I plan to redouble my efforts to be supportive in the future when someone I know is out on the line.

Speaking of which, I wonder what giving 5500 broadcasters/journalists a taste of the picket line will do for the future of the labour movement in this country. For starters, I'm guessing a whole lot of blue collar workers might just have found themselves a bunch of new friends.

The Latest Offer

2005-09-28T20:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I've taken a good look at this much vaunted latest offer, studied it closely for a good two, three seconds, and the verdict is...

... hell if I know. That's what negotiating committees are for. They've spent months and months studying this thing and I expect they can tell at a glance if it's what we're looking for.

If it isn't a good contract, then we must stay the course. I haven't picketed for the last seven weeks for a lousy deal. We've won the public relations war hands down, now we need only hang in there.

For what it's worth, the negotiating team has the complete support of this blogger. I would like to see them secure a deal that will leave me feeling like the last few weeks have meant something. Something other than anxiety attacks and blistered feet. I know we'll never make up the lost income. But it sure would be nice to go back inside with the kind of warm, rosy glow that accompanies having drunk just a bit too much of your favourite single malt scotch. That, and the sure and certain knowledge that you've made some bastard pay for screwing you around.

***

It's starting to get a little chilly at night, and I've heard some people talking about setting up those old oil barrels around the Broadcast Centre. For the love of God, don't do it! For the following reasons:

1. I'm already slowly dying from having breathed the creosote soaked wood burned the last two times out.

2. They stink.

3. From what I understand, the man largely responsible for procuring them last time is now a manager on the inside

4. They stink, they really do, you'll have to throw your jackets and clothes out afterward, trust me on this one

5. You can achieve the same effect by simply dressing warmly (yeah, I know I'm a smart ass)

Mind you, if you can find some "artificial" oil barrels (like those artificial gas fireplaces) then be my guest. If they don't exist, perhaps somebody ought to invent them.

Just Plain Bizarre

2005-09-28T16:27:00.000-04:00

Just plain bizarre, from our man back East, John Gushue...

A Human Face

2005-09-27T13:37:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the On The Line newsletter people for changing the advertisement. I apologize for my crankiness... and thanks for the newsletter, it's informative and a much appreciated read both "on the line" and at home.

A fellow blogger took a few potshots at some of the security staff recently. I understand the impulse behind the potshots (especially if one is feeling cranky) but I feel the need to point out a few things. Number one, the security staff aren't our enemies, and this lot is positively friendly compared to the batch we encountered the last time out (except for Lucky... anybody remember Lucky? Lucky was all right).

Having done a few stints as a Picket Captain, and having spoken to other Picket Captains, I know that this bunch of security guards has come to our aid on several occasions. They've even spouted our party line to passersby (they know it off by heart, having heard it often enough). They have complimented our picket line for its restraint and our good sense. Many of the security guards are in transition, on their way to becoming firemen, police officers.

One (figured prominently in my fellow blogger's photos) is a fellow who has completely turned his life around after kicking drugs several years ago, and is now raising an adopted two year old girl by himself, after rescuing her from a Bad Scene. This man has my respect.

I'm not completely naive... I know that they would knock some of our heads should we attempt to storm the building or do something equally foolish. But that's not going to happen on this picket line.

So let's keep our focus on the people responsible for this mess.

I'll give you a hint... it ain't the security guards.

Stursberg Invited to Film Festival... Not!

2005-09-27T10:02:00.000-04:00

This morning I received an e-mail from a friend who has been working overseas for an international film festival. He asked me how the lockout was going, asked me if I was affected by it, and then confessed that he was contacting me on behalf of a colleague seeking contact information for one "Richard Stursberg, Executive VP of English Television, CBC."

I wrote back that yes, thanks to the likes of Richard Stursberg, I am affected by the lockout. "I must know," I wrote, "what could your colleague possibly want with Stursberg? If it's to tar and feather him, then I would love to help in any way I can."

My friend promptly replied:

"(We're) supposed to be inviting him to attend the film fest.

But now, we’re all thinking, hmmmm, maybe (the boss) is not in tune with the goings on back home. I suggested that my colleague go back to the boss and say “Can’t find an email address for him, but we did receive one request to have him tarred and feathered!”

Your words have brought much amusement to the gang here.

Keep up the good fight."

Hopefully he will not be invited after all. I suggested that my friend have his colleagues invite me instead.

Still waiting to hear back on that one.

Tar and Feathers

2005-09-27T00:56:00.000-04:00

On the line today I got to thinking about Rabinovitch, and Stursberg, and yes, our old pal Smith too (you know, the guy from the Matrix), and my thoughts wondered, as they are wont to do whilst circling buildings ad infinitum on cold, blustery days, and I thought, gee, here we are just politely picketing, writing, advocating, bus riding, demonstrating and so on while they continue to stick it to us (and the Canadian public) day after day.

A couple of hundred years ago we would have just run them out of town. But not before a good ol' fashioned tar and featherin'.

Here's what Wikepedia has to say on the matter of tarring and feathering:

"Tarring and feathering was a typical punishment used to enforce justice in feudal Europe and its colonies, as well as the early American frontier. Both tar used in construction and feathers from edible fowl sources (e.g. chicken) were plentiful in the middle and western United States where the practice primarily flourished. The idea was to hurt and humiliate a person enough so they would leave town and cause no more mischief. Hot tar was either poured or painted on to a criminal while he (rarely she) was immobilized. If the tar is hot enough to burn the skin, it is a regular form of corporal punishment, otherwise it mainly falls into the category public humiliation."

Now, I'm not saying that we should (necessarily) resort to such means to deal with the aforementioned nincompoops, I'm just saying that the concept crossed my mind whilst thinking about them, sort of a "word association" type thing:

"What pops into your mind when I say Rabinovitch?"

"Tar."

"How 'bout Stursberg?"

"Feathers."

"Smith?"

"Tar AND Feathers."

Were the practice still in vogue today we would simply have tarred and feathered the bastards by week three and have been done with it. With few if any problems with subsequent senior managers, I would imagine.

Although one cannot help but yearn for the halcyon days of tarring and feathering, we live in a civilized age now (frequent genocides and a curious dearth of binding arbitration notwithstanding) and must perforce devise civilized means to settle our disputes (lest we wind up serving time in some other Canadian institution...)

So I'm thinkin' corn syrup and Rice Krispies instead.

Who's in?

Open the Door, and Let Us In

2005-09-26T01:20:00.000-04:00

Ten hours on the line today, and ten more tomorrow.

Ye Gods.

What did we learn today? That we may not get paid until three weeks after we're back inside. That we will have to picket right up to the bitter end, because the bylaws state that in order to get lockout pay, we have to picket, and it looks like we'll sure need that money to tide us through.

In light of this and for other good reasons, we should be insisting that management let us in as soon as an agreement is reached, with ratification to come later. It's not unprecedented and it's an opportunity for management to show a little goodwill. For us to be picketing after an agreement is reached (well, anytime actually) is a waste of time and resources. And management has their work cut out for them restoring amicable relations; if I were them I'd leap on this opportunity to get a head start. Mind you, it wouldn't placate everybody (far from it), but it would be a major step in the right direction.

We don't have to do absolutely EVERYTHING the hard way.

***

Another quick note before I pack it in:

The newsletter On The Line has a bit (on page three of Saturday's edition) which says: "Tired of some of the questionable content in some of the Lockout Blogs?" and then goes on to promote a site which presumably has less questionable content.

Myself, I find this offensive. The blogs are not perfect but they are what they are and people know to take them with a grain of salt. And there are some damned fine lockout blogs out there.
The remark taints all the lockout blogs without acknowledging the good ones. It's bad form to promote your own material by denigrating that of others, folks.

Please change the advertisement.

A Neutral Country

2005-09-25T09:12:00.000-04:00

The CBC Credit Union in the Broadcast Centre has become a bit of a neutral zone. Locked out workers can enter from John St, and managers can enter from the orange elevator hallway. Inside, it is not possible to mingle, as the two areas are separate, but workers and managers can speak over the counter to one another. And apparently there have been a few heated exchanges.

As a result, staff in the credit union have begun locking the managers' door. If a manager shows up, they check to see who's standing on the locked-out side. If the locked out worker is a known hothead, and the manager is a known hothead, the door remains locked, and never the twain shall meet.

It is the managers who have to wait, though, not the locked out workers.

Note to managers:

Don't complain about being broke.

Ratification

2005-09-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned before, my gut feeling tells me that we'll be looking at ratification in a couple of weeks. (Of course, my gut feeling told me this lockout would never happen in the first place...)

So how will ratification work and how long will it take? Robin Rowland posted on the subject a while back:

"Both sides, management and union have to ratify an agreement. There have been cases in Canada where management, not the union, has rejected an agreement that was reached at the negotiating table. Given the sad record of Senior Management at CBC this could be a possiblity in our case."

And here's what one correspondent says on the subject:

"This is a difficult question because this is not a strike. At any point the CBC can unlock the doors. I understand that the CBC will not do this. Once there is a deal, it would have to be printed (maybe translated) in some form. Printing won't take long, but translating could.

Then there must be meetings everywhere to explain the deal and a secret ballot. Let's try to estimate: d-day the contract is done; d-day plus 1 it is ready and on its way to the members. Say day 2-5 for meetings (it could be longer); Day 6 & 7 for the vote; Day 8 and 9 to count. There would have to be a return to work deal as well. For example what shows will be on the different networks (remember this is traditionally season change, patricularly in TV).

In units that don't work 9-5, who works what shift? Remember all the schedulers are also out. Say day 10 & 11 for that.So it could be a while. Of course the CBC could make it go quicker if they accept the bargaining committee's recomendation to accept the deal and open the door. But don't hold your breath for that!"

If anybody else has any thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them.

To Sleep, Perchance to Picket...

2005-09-23T23:32:00.001-04:00

Relaxin' on the line...

For some reason I didn't really look forward to picketing ten hours today.

Go figure.

A friend said to me today, "You know, I'm surprised you aren't one of the people blogging this whole thing."

I had to laugh.

There was lots of good news on the line today, which left me feeling optimistic. I got into an argument with one of the security guards about when this thing'll all be over; he was rather less optimistic than me. I said two weeks from today we'll be looking at ratification. He said no way this thing'll be over in less than a month. So I caught him by surprise with a flurry to the solar plexus, decked him with a left, and as he lay there on the ground squealing like a stuck pig, I said, "Is that "no way this thing'll be over in less than a month" enough for ya?

Ever since I been the Champ.

Okay, maybe I've been listening to too much Q-107, not to mention been picketing too long today.

But the conversation did raise an interesting question. To wit, how long will the ratification process take? If any CMG officials (or even that Anton from Toronto guy) happen to read this, would you mind taking a moment to explain to this poor uninformed picketer how that all works? My security guard pal insisted that the process would take all of two weeks. I can't believe that. My questions are, once a deal is reached, what exactly happens then? How long does the voting take? And how long until we are back inside, assuming the deal is ratified?

I look forward to your response...

Our Illustrious Negotiating Team

2005-09-23T23:32:00.000-04:00

The entire CMG negotiating team, with Arnold Amber, left

Lockout Beard Craze Sweeps Nation

2005-09-23T23:31:00.000-04:00

Television AD Bob Graham sporting his bristly Lockout Beard

Ladies and gentlemen, it's not too late to get in on the lockout beard craze sweeping picket lines across the country. This may be a particularly appropriate time, what with it starting to get cold in places.

It's Official!

2005-09-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

Nora Young sporting her High Fashion Picket Captain's hat

That's right, it's official. A Picket Marshall advised me today that Picket Captains no longer have to wear dorky orange hats.

(You were hoping for a different official announcement, perhaps? Try me again in about two weeks...)

Cold Feet Speaks

2005-09-23T07:37:00.000-04:00

Off to picket another ten today... while I'm gone, check out this thoughtful post from Cold Feet about the Terry Fox business.

I daresay my mother would agree.

Later.

TUX

2005-09-22T12:55:00.000-04:00

Picketing the other day I ran into this fellow at the corner of Front and John. He was this athletic looking guy in his late twenties and he wanted to know what was going on. So I told him, and he peppered me with questions, all of which I answered patiently. It sounded like he was an American; he wasn't clear on who the Prime Minister was, but he was obviously intelligent and interested.

He told me he'd only been in town three weeks. It occurred to me that he might be a professional athlete, so I asked him what he did for a living.

He said, "Believe me, you don't want to know."

Which of course just made me curious, so I asked him again, and he still wouldn't tell me.

We spoke some more and then I asked him his name. He hesitated, and then said, "Tux."

"Tux?"

"Yeah, Tux. They call me Tux." He laughed. "The Ultimate Experience."

Okay.

After hearing me out, Tux said, "All right. I understand. Tell you what, I'll make a few calls, see what I can do. I'll have this sorted out in no time."

And that's why I'm not worried.

'Cause Tux is on the case. It's guys like him that really run the world, you know.

Gigalos and the Illuminati...

The Russians Are Coming

2005-09-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

Stumbled across this fascinating webpage recently, apparently commenting on a post I wrote near the beginning of the lockout.

Seems we've attracted the attention of the Russians.

I couldn't make heads or tails out of it:

Интересные моменты возникают, когда узнаёшь детали нынешнего выдворения на Си-би-си (простите за славянофильство в переводе слова lock-out, которое оказалось не по зубам даже квебекцам).

Et cetera et cetera... so I filtered it through a web translater and now it's all much clearer:

***

"Interesting moments appear, when you learn the details of present vydvoreniya on SI-BI- SI (you prostite for slavyanofil'stvo in the transfer of word lock-out, which proved to be not on the teeth even kvebektsam). 1. effectiveness against the social contract. Surprising thoughts you read in bi- ravine of one of the "workers", as entirely in the modern manner he does not call cbcunplugged.com being fought for the rights.

From one side, you understand the honestly mentioned gap between the last year's (1 billion) and present (750 million) money, given out (earned?) by corporation. From other side, it is offensive for the cruelty of capitalism. The author expresses irritation with respect to do-30-tiletnim. -30-tiletnim. which- de they do not see the difference between the contract and constant basis. According to note, young only begin career, they should support family, but mean- de, "fellow is free to be poor".

This argument remains incomprehensible: they reproach young in the cheapness, in the dumping. Entirely, probably as immigrants? But is there in those selection? The author goes further, reproaching unripe in the absence thoughts about the pension, about the privileges. In young- de much health, and money by them will send the parents. The young do not have house, for which it is necessary to pay mortgage.

Sufficiently strange arguments, as if they described the advantages of the tribe of mladogo. And nevertheless, and everything after all.... Bitterness of the deserved worker, the quotation: sufficiently alluringly to fit to its own circumstances. What, strictly, this such, social contract? About which did write John loke? 2. is it possible to compare this situation with the change of management the BBC and with the counterrecoil in journalism in Russia? Are certain, scales entirely different and, most likely, I simply force hysteria, as Soviet newspapers spoke."

***

I don't know about you, but I'd like to know more about this "tribe of mladogo"...

The Big Bad Board

2005-09-21T20:40:00.000-04:00

People are freaking out about The Board's statement backing Rabinovitch.

It doesn't mean a whole lot.

The Board does not outrank Rabinovitch... he's not accountable to the Board... and he's pals with the Board. So they wouldn't do anything about him anyway, even if they were so inclined, which they're not.

The statement is just an exercise in solidarity. They're just closing ranks for the benefit of the public. I don't imagine they all support Rabinovitch one hundred percent behind closed doors; they just feel they have to in public.

My favourite sentence in the statement is this: "One of the issues that has attracted most attention, the employment of contract staff, in our view, has been seriously misunderstood and misrepresented."

They're actually right about this one. It has been seriously misunderstood ( by the Board) and misrepresented (by Bobby himself).

Yep... I'm afraid the odds of the Board having received an unbiased view of this situation are about as likely as my wife being impressed upon finding me on the computer when she gets home from work tonight, which should be any minute now (he wrote typing really really fast)...

But the most important reason why (I feel) this statement means nothing is that, ultimately, it is not the Board that is going to hold Rabinovitch and his cronies accountable. Nor will it be you or me; sadly, we will have as much clout when we get back inside as a lobster in a fishing boat (except in a fiercely passive aggressive kind of way).

No, it will be the Opposition parties in Parliament that are going to call for Rabinovitch's head, and perhaps his neck and shoulders too, backed by portions of the Canadian media and the Canadian public. If they do so vigorously enough, and if Martin has wit and character enough (big "ifs" I grant you) then we may live to see that sonuvarabinovitch turfed someday in the not too distant future.

Mind you, turfing people like Rabinovitch and his cronies is nothing more than a game of musical chairs at best, involving lofty positions in other, less public institutions, along with platinum pensions and swank country retreats.

And then of course there's the question of his replacement.

But you'll be happy to know that I've already spoken to Mr. P. about that.

Stalag CBC

2005-09-21T14:00:00.000-04:00

When they first started in big with the security guards at the Jarvis Street facility in Toronto employees starting calling the place "Stalag CBC."

I thought about that today when I heard a manager comparing the atmosphere inside the Broadcast Centre to Nazi Germany. Apparently the Senior Managers are brooking no dissent. If you're a manager, you must toe the party line. No talking back. No hard questions. No dissent whatsoever.

So here's the trick if you're a manager inside Stalag CBC right now. You must walk a tightrope between placating the current fascist regime, and being able to elude a lynching when this thing is all over. No mean feat, and there are a few managers I'm aware of right now that will not survive post-war CBC.

Because you know the current senior management team is toast. It's only a matter of time until they face a reckoning for their actions. And when they go, they will take a lot of people with them.

Collaborators, if you will.

If you are a manager inside and you've done what you were asked to do and nothing more, then maybe you stand a chance of surviving post-war CBC. If I were you, I would get out to the line and check on your employees. Pick up the horn and call a few of them. But you'd best be sincere or such tactics will blow up in your face. Even if sincere, you'd best prepare for some frosty receptions. People are anxious, depressed and pissed.

Good luck.

As bad as it is out here...

... I'm glad I'm not you.

A Conversation With Mr. P.

2005-09-20T12:54:00.000-04:00

Mr. Prime Minister, I beg of you. Please consider someone from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's rank and file for the post of CBC President.

No, Mr. Prime Minister, I'm not kidding. 'Cause it has to be someone who understands what it is that we do. Not some neo-con with dollar signs for pupils. Oh yes, Mr. P, I am well aware that Canada's public broadcaster must be fiscally responsible. But that does not mean that it has to APPEAR to be efficient at the expense of ACTUALLY being efficient.

Yes, Mr. P., I do apologize for the caps; I realize that caps constitutes shouting in blogland. It won't happen again, I promise.

You see, Mr. P., if the President of the CBC doesn't know anything about broadcasting, if he or she doesn't understand at a fundamental level what it is that we do, then it is difficult if not impossible for us to work together. We can't relate to the President and the President can't relate to us. Yes, that most certainly is the case right now. We're at cross purposes, you see; the current President wants one thing and we want another. We want to be able to broadcast quality programs to the Canadian taxpayer and he wants only to destroy public broadcasting in this country, depriving of us of our livilihoods in the process, quite possibly resulting in the starvation of our children and that of our pets too, poor little puppies, kittens, hamsters...

I beg your pardon, Mr. P., but as you can see I'm quite emotionally invested in all of this; why I myself have a pet iguana that very nearly expired during the last labour dispute... or was it the one before that...?

Yes Mr. P, I will try to stay focussed. You see, being fiscally responsible is not wrong. But being fiscally responsible at the expense of doing what it is that we're supposed to be doing defeats the entire purpose! Forgive me, sir, but we are in the business of broadcasting, to Canadians for Canadians. A high standard of broadcasting, I might add, considerably higher than what taxpayers are currently getting for their money.

This whole lockout just proves my point. If the President cared a whit about quality broadcasting, then that's what we would be doing right now. It's what we would have been doing all along, especially during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. We would be broadcasting quality programs WHILE negotiating... I mean, have you heard that the President's not even going to let us back in to work until AFTER an affirmative ratification?

Oh you have heard that.

From Tod Maffin's blog.

I see.

Yes, Mr. P, I do apologize for the caps again. But alas, it is clear to me that the current President does not care a whit about providing quality broadcasting to Canadian taxpayers.

Yes, Mr. P, I use the word "alas" in ordinary conversation all the time.

No I did not know that it dated from the year1260, and was originally an expression of weariness rather than woe. I daresay both definitions are applicable today.

So, Mr. P., that is why I think we need a President from within the ranks of the CBC. We need someone who appreciates and understands our culture, someone who can foster our morale, who cares passionately about public broadcasting, and who may be relied upon to run a tight ship with a firm hand on the tiller.

No, thank YOU, Mr. P.

I look forward to chatting again.

Burying the Lede

2005-09-19T22:55:00.000-04:00

Note: My pal Laurence has pointed out to me the correct spelling (and meaning) of this post's title... hence the change

Back from a couple of days off with the family in which I managed to completely forget about the lockout. Well, except for everytime I purchased something. And the one time I mentioned it in a fit of guilt at not tipping somebody in a bathroom (don't ask... it's a long story, and not nearly as sordid as you're thinking.)

On Saturday I did a long post about the negotiations, and buried somewhere in the middle I mentioned that the senior management committee wouldn't let us back in until after ratification. So I get home today Monday and Tod's got the story up as breaking news, from some other source, which left me feeling somewhat, um, bemused.

Please understand that I neither fault nor blame Tod for this... just to be clear, I thank Tod for many, many things and blame him for nothing. Also, Tod had lots more info in his post than I did. And I certainly don't expect Tod or anyone else (um, except for Mom) to ferret through every single line of this blog in the remote chance that there might be some useful piece of info in it. No, I blame myself, because I buried that piece of info inside a long post (guess that's what they mean by burying the lead... hey, I ain't no journalist) and I have a bad habit of creating a post, posting it, and then writing about three more lengthy posts on the same day and posting them too.

And then this "Anton from Toronto" character comes along and I feel I have to post his stuff, too.

Like, really. Who's gonna wade through all them posts?

I mean besides Mom.

(Okay Mom, maybe, MAYBE I'll wear the damned hat.

Maybe.)

So what have I learned? That the next time I feel I have something Really Important to post I'll post it... and nothing else (no, not even something from this Anton character), and keep it up there for three days in a row. I'll post it in large, orange, blinking neon letters, wait for an excerpt of it to appear in Tessa's blog and for it to be read aloud on the Jay Leno show...

...and then I'll THINK about maybe posting something else.

And I figure I'll have about as much luck with that as I'm having with this whole "not eating chocolate" thing.

In a Word...

2005-09-18T12:09:00.000-04:00

Somebody referring to themselves as "Mommy" sent me this:

"Aw, come on, wear the orange hat!!"

Let me just think about it.

No.

Worth Repeating

2005-09-18T11:25:00.000-04:00

Anton from Toronto attempted to clear up some misconceptions on Ouimet's blog recently. I think his remarks bear repeating.

Comment
"They have a budget and can only hire so many people. So if the union is protecting some useless wingnut hired in the 80's, where does that leave the new kid?"

Anton
Unlike the backbiting procedure for managers, there are very clearly laid out mechanisms for turfing useless wingnuts in our contract. The union will fight you every step of the way, to guarantee that the rights of the individual are being protected, but if the wingnut really is useless, he/she will be gone at the end of the procedure. If you're honest you should also realise that there are few useless wingnuts left in either CMG or management. The last 20 years of cutbacks has guaranteed that. But there will always be a couple of them that are better at laying paper trails to protect their collective asses than doing their jobs. I believe that management is in a better position to do this, but I'm biased.

Comment
"The CMG knows that when these old guys in the union are removed, or when they retire, the union itself will expire."

Anton
You're right, and CBC will be expiring right behind. You need old guys, middle age hot shots, and energetic young kids. It's the central point in this argument we're having. We think that you need more people on staff. Before I was 25, I was thrilled to take on any contract, but when I'd earned my chops, I went looking for a stable staff position. I'm dying to train my replacement. But it takes at least 2 years to learn to do radio SFX. It's not like doing Foley, there are no schools, and if you're on a yearly contract, you'll want to learn something a lot less arcane. Mine is a rather extreme example, but most of the jobs at CBC are pretty specialised. Who else is doing long form Radio Documentaries? We've just about destroyed our comedy development, but there are still a few experienced comedy producers waiting to train new talent. Sorry for being radio heavy, but that's what I know best, and I know that the CHUM group isn't about to invest in the years of experience it take to produce a year of Ideas programs.

Comment
"None of us ever counted on you to find us jobs anyways."

Anton
You've got a strange idea of the function of the union. The union does not possess any super powers. We normally can't force CBC to change their policy. That's what we're trying to do now, and as you can tell it's very hard to do. Our main function is to educate and protect our members rights. We try to negotiate a contract that's fair to both the Corporation, and the employee. In a healthy enviroment the union and the employer work together to create an enviroment that is productive, and enjoyable. I was here almost 20 years before my first strike, then I got slammed 3 times in a row. CMG went for over 50 years without ever having a strike or lock-out. The union hasn't changed that much, but upper management, and more importantly, our budget has. Our budget has changed our focus. Instead of focusing on good programming we seem to be more concerned with selling or renting everything possible, and commiting to the shortest possible employment commitments. That doesn't read well, but I never claimed to be a writer.

Comment
"Do the heads of the CMG have jobs other than being the heads of the CMG?"

Anton
Please tell me you are not a CMG member, nor do you work for HR/IR. The thought that you're over 16 and are asking this question is too depressing. Everyone who gets elected works for CBC. Some positions get a lot more releases than others. The only people that don't work for CBC are the Union Reps. Dan Oldfield, Bruce May, people like that. The union pays them as professional negotiators to negotiate, enforce and interpet contracts, and a lot of other work as well. Most of the CMG reps did work at CBC at one time, and just kept working on more union stuff till they took a job with the union. But they work for the members of CMG.

All the top decision making positions are held by CBC employees who give up evenings, weekends, and are sometimes released from work temporarily to be Union Executives. If you are a CMG member in Toronto, you can spend part of your picket time taking a UNION 101 course. If you ask nice, or use an alias, managers could probably take it as well.

The Negotiations: Through a Glass Darkly

2005-09-17T19:55:00.000-04:00

I'm still on the line, picketed the last few hours, had a few, shall we say, interesting conversations.

Somebody told me that the other night, in the middle of the night, the picket captains rounded up all the picketers and did a head count. Several dozen people were signed in... but the head count netted something like ten picketers. Probably people had signed in and forgotten to sign out (he wrote generously). I heard another story about a guy who signed in and went to see a movie. Man is that tempting. Tempting, but not really cool. To be fair, most of the people I know feel guilty about pee breaks. It's okay folks, take your pee breaks. No, not in the park. But ix-nay on the movie-nays.

The negotiations.

Drum roll, please.

I love the rumours. I keep hearing, this'll be all over when the hockey starts. This'll be all over when parliament is in session. This'll be all over when I get my novel written (okay, that was just me doing some wishful thinking).

Here's what I know about the negotiations from people who know a tiny little bit more about it than me. The negotiations have little to do with hockey, parliament and, um, novel writing. They have to do with the issues on the table and whether the two parties are happy with the language. The negotiaters try to keep external considerations off the table. The negotiating will be finished when both management and the union are happy with the language and not before. At no time will the union negotiators give us a contract to ratify until they are confident they can defend every single issue.

The pace of the negotiations is excruciatingly slow. (This is not news, I know). The reason it is slow is because lawyers are sitting at the table, poring over every single word. Before the lockout there was a clause in the contract having to do with military service. It was a clause that should have been rubber stamped instantly by management. Instead, they brought forth new language on it. Why? Just 'cause. That slows things down. They are apparently doing this with everything. And not just management... sometimes the Guild is doing the same. In fact, management has actually suggested that the Guild is deliberately stalling until hockey and parliament give them some leverage. This Guild denies this, of course. The fact is, nobody's getting paid out here (unlike the management negotiating committee). Members of the Guild negotiating committee are certainly not getting paid. No, what's happening is that both sides are trying to make the contract perfect for both of them.

Perhaps one can lay blame... a little. The lead negotiator for management is a novice, he's never done this before (hey, everybody's gotta start somewhere.) People sitting at the table for management are not the people that should be sitting at the table. Every time something serious comes up, the management negotiating committee has to check with senior management. On one occasion before the lockout, this necessitated contacting a manager in China. That added a few minutes, you may be sure. In negotiations between GM and the CAW the right people are sitting at the table. Why is that not the case here?

The atmosphere at the negotiating table is described as professional. These are real, live human beings trying to do the best they can under rather trying circumstances; every now and then both sides require time to cool off. But then they roll up their sleeves and get back to work.

Apparently there are about six major issues remaining. The negotiators refuse to speculate on how long it will take to resolve them, although job evaluation is one, and it's tricky. It has been said that negotiations are a process, not an event. A process that can be sped up or slowed down, sometimes on a dime. A breakthrough could happen next week... or next month.

The question still remains, why can't we work why they talk? No one has an answer to that one. And management has apparently made it clear that even if they come up with a deal for us to ratify, they won't let us back in until after the ratification.

Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the Guild negotiators have been reading the blogs. That's not to say that the blogs are any kind of a factor in the negotiations (let's get over ourselves, already). The negotiators have stopped reading blogs that are insulting (representatives of management have told me the same thing). I humbly suggest that we attempt to maintain an adult tone on our blogs if we expect to continue being read, let alone taken seriously.

I still have serious issues with senior management; just the same, I thank the members of both negotiating teams for their hard work and perserverence.

Stay the course.

Get us back inside.

On The Line

2005-09-17T15:09:00.000-04:00

I'm in the middle of my ten hour day, just finished Picket Captain duty (did not wear the orange hat), did many many laps, I've decided I deserve to sit for a few minutes and do up a quick post, live on the line.

One of the benefits of being a picket captain is that everybody buys you free beer while you're standing there. Okay they don't, but they ought to. Actually, I just finished reading the picket captain rules and alchohol's strictly prohibited on the line.

I guess that's a good thing.

One of the REAL benefits is that you get to talk to managers entering the building. At first glance that might not sound like a good thing, but like much else in life, it is if you make it work for you. I like to engage them in conversation, and these days they're only too happy to talk. I still find it sad how many of them continue to toe the management party line, but as one of them explained to me, some feel they have to do that, because they're paranoid. Word gets out. So they have to be careful.

One manager told me that his crowd inside thought it would be all over by next week. He'd heard that they'd planned to expedite bargaining this weekend and start wrapping it all up by next week. Yes, I know these rumours aren't worth the paper they're printed on, but myself I don't have a problem with speculating. Another manager told me that the managers inside are fervently reading the blogs, and there have been some hurt feelings. He said, there's no reason to get personal. Senior managerment may have asked for it, but the middle managers haven't, so why be mean to them.

I'm inclined to agree, frankly, and have made it a point in this blog not to get personal with anybody other than senior management, who I feel orchestrated this whole fiasco. This is not an opportunity to settle personal scores with people with whom I may have issues. It's not about that. It's about getting back inside, earning money to support my family, and perhaps (not to put too fine a point on it) saving public broadcasting in this country. Yes, I know I hurled a few epithets a few posts back, but they were generic epithets, directed to anybody willing to embrace them, that may have been feeling rather like a bastard or an idiot that particular day. I'm sure you know who you are.

But I digress. Digression is better than standing in the sun, although I will return to my picket line duties shortly.

Speaking of which, as I was standing directly in the sun a short while ago, lamenting aloud the imminent onset of skin cancer, a friend said, "Don't worry, skin cancer's the happy cancer. You'll look back later and think, well, at least I got this spending lots of time outside in the sun."

Um... I think not.

Yesterday while it was raining I noticed many people clinging to the walls and doors. Several of them were reading. One of them told me today that management complained, forcing these people away from the walls. Apparently having them so close to the walls "bothered them." Gee, we can't be bothering those poor people inside, can we? Just to be sure, they turned off the lights so that people couldn't read.

Nice.

My time is up, time to hit the bricks again.

Fun in the sun.

Vanity

2005-09-17T08:02:00.000-04:00

Back from a ten hour shift... a quick post and a few snapshots before heading off for another ten hour shift.

But first of all, to answer Justin's question, this blog will almost certainly be shut down after the lockout. This is a CBC lockout blog ("the new porn", as some have called it) and when this sad chapter in history is over, I will not continue the blog. Happily, I seem to be on strike or locked out of the CBC fairly frequently, so it's only a matter of time until the blog starts up again.

As the pizza add goes, "it was a rainy day" on the line today. The talk was of relationships, and love affairs on the line. Any picket line romances out there? Husbands and wives, if your spouse tells you, "Gee honey, I'm sorry but for some reason we have to picket forty hours this week... um, at night..." be suspicious.

They made me be a picket captain today. I usually agree because I know they're short of picket captains. And I'm a pushover. But not that much of a pushover. When you're a picket captain you have to sport some kind of picket captain ID. Mr. Picket Marshall said, "Put on this hat so they'll know who you are." He was talking about the famous orange picket captain hat. Did I mention it was orange? This is one ugly hat. Now, I've seen lots of people wear the hat and all I have to say to that is they're better people than me. Dorkier, but better. "Sorry," Mr. Picket Marshall told me, "It's non-negotiable. Now be a man and put on the damned hat."

Well, I'm sorry, but I draw the line at orange hats. I'm allergic to orange. It's bad enough I'm out on the street, do I have to look like a nerd, too? Okay, okay, yes I know that I AM a nerd... look, it's bad enough that I have to be a nerd, must I look like one, too? Folks, I'm serious, we need better picket captain hats. Something cool. Something, oh, I don't know, NOT ORANGE.

I get that they have to be visible. I know... how about something like what firemen used to wear? Those bright red metallic hats.

Now THAT would be a cool picket captain's hat.

As I said, back on the line today for another ten hours.

See ya.

I'll be the one not wearing the bright orange hat.

Manna From... Somewhere

2005-09-17T07:57:00.000-04:00

It may have been wet, but we didn't go hungry. I'm not exactly sure where these sandwiches came from, but many thanks to whoever donated them.

CBC Couple

2005-09-17T07:52:00.000-04:00

This is Pat Onysko and Alan Lawrence, a CBC couple, both out on the line.

Pat and Alan are both picketing and doing some work on the side, but expect it to get a little rough soon financially. They had to cancel their sixteen year old daughter's birthday trip to New York. Just the same, they told me they're in this for the long haul.

It's Raining Again

2005-09-17T07:47:00.000-04:00

A wet day on the line for Kent Hoffman, Jowi Taylor and Jeff Goodes

Best Sign of the Day

2005-09-17T07:43:00.000-04:00

A Picket Captain and His Hat

2005-09-17T07:36:00.000-04:00

Picket Captain Ian Cooper, (formerly) of Newsworld.

I just want to say that I met Ian Cooper last night and he's a really nice guy. He let me take this picture and the one below. He's a better man than me for wearing that hat.

Thanks Ian, and thanks for volunteering to be a Picket Captain... forgive me for poking fun at your hat.

Would You Wear This Hat?

2005-09-17T07:30:00.000-04:00

The infamous hat...

Ever wonder why you can't get enough picket captains?

It's because you make them wear this hat.

Epithets

2005-09-16T07:46:00.000-04:00

Picketing ten hours today and tomorrow so I'll probably be hard pressed to post much until Sunday. One of the kids isn't sleeping well... night terrors... so we haven't got much sleep the last couple of nights. If you see me sleeping on the concrete today with a picket sign over my face, that'll just be where I fell down.

Philly had a post about the impact of this whole thing on her kids; I'm beginning to wonder about the impact on my family. Parents anxious, projecting their anxiety onto their kids who suddenly can't sleep, keeping the whole house awake, increasing the tension and anxiety in what threatens to become a vicious feedback loop. Now, lest any senior management type read this and get the wrong idea, no, it doesn't make me want to cave. It makes me want to do something I've resolved not to do on this blog. It makes me want to call you names. Something like...

Bastards.

This is the height of stupidity. You're talking, working things out. Progress is slow, but progress is being made. Now, why couldn't we be working while you're talking? Serving the Canadian public? Fulfilling our mandate? Earning money to feed and house our families? Why couldn't we have been doing that all along?

This could just be lack of sleep talking, but...

Idiots.

Another labour dispute is resorting to arbitration to settle their dispute. It should have been arbritration from the get go. Most labour disputes should always be settled by some form of binding arbitration.

Lest it result in name calling.

Scabs R Us

2005-09-14T22:12:00.000-04:00

John Gushue reports:

"A company hired by the CBC to co-ordinate a broadcast Friday for the Terry Fox anniversary has been approaching retired CBC workers, according to the Canadian Media Guild."

Check out John's site for more info.

I remember the last couple of times out some of my former colleagues, who had quit the corp for one reason or another, did struck work. It was difficult to comprehend, especially given that many of these guys had spent time on the picket line in past labour disputes. I have friends now who still refuse to have anything to do with these people, won't even look at them (let alone speak to them) because they crossed the picket line (some of them have returned to work for the corp, others we meet in the street).

Although I regret that these people did this, I'm not good at sustained anger... it's not healthy, and I prefer to place people over ideals. Just the same, I understand where the anger comes from. If you cross the picket line, you're taking money out of my pocket. You're partially responsible should I lose my house or have trouble feeding my family.

Which reminds me. In case you didn't know, there is more than one kind of picket line. In the type of work we do, there exist electronic picket lines. Don't do interviews by line or by phone. There's also a snail mail picket line. Somebody e-mailed me just this evening to ask if it's appropriate to mail a CD to the broadcast centre during the dispute. I informed them that it's not. Consciousness raised, they assured me that they wouldn't.

So... please don't cross the picket line. Any picket line.

I may still talk to you afterward... but I won't really like you.

Another Recipe...

2005-09-14T21:13:00.000-04:00

This time from Edith Prickley (of all people) of Picketers Anonymous.

Prickley writes: "Disclaimer: This recipe is provided for entertainment/informational purposes only. "Picketers Anonymous" does not condone or advocate the use of illegal substances. We accept no responsibility for the way this information is used, nor for any harm that might occur from the use of this recipe."

After an introduction like that, how can you resist?

You will find the recipe here, and here, and even here

Thanks Edith!

Aigle, You Are Too Cool

2005-09-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

How's a guy supposed to pick a favourite blog with so many great blogs to choose from?

How's a guy supposed to MAINTAIN a blog with everybody upping the ante every day?

Ouimet wrote:

"Check this out...

Now hit control-A and look at it again."

Thanks, Ouimet.

And Aigle.

And all the rest of you bloggers.

You should be generating this kind of content inside.

The Punchline

2005-09-14T16:42:00.000-04:00

You might be surprised to learn that Rabinovitch and company have been kind enough to submit a recipe of their own to our food fight. It's a little something called:

A Recipe For Disaster

Ingredients:

1 hapless public broadcasting corporation
5500 employees
half a dozen self-serving senior managers
many frightened middle managers
1 apathetic federal government
1 bemused national media

Place the self-serving senior managers in charge of the hapless public broadcasting corporation. Limit their vision until thoroughly shortsighted. Stir in frightened middle managers until completely brainwashed. Kick the 5500 employees the hell out onto the street. Keep the apathetic federal government apart indefinitely. Season with bemused commentary from the national media. Bake until completely indigestible.

Feeds: one nation starved for intelligent public discourse.

...I tried it, and found it a little bitter.

So I added raisins.

***

I just checked Tessa's blog and found that she had posted this recipe... with the same title as the recipe above. I daresay hers will taste a darned sight better.

A(nother) Recipe For Disaster (by Tessa)

"I'm no cook. I eat toast, cereal and chocolate bars (Crunchie). I do, however, have a strange addiction to bagles with saurkraut, mozarella and feta cheese. This is a disgusting thing, I know. But I am in love with it.Nonetheless, I will share with you a recipe that's been passed down to me through generations.

Buy one bag of Hershey's milk chocolate chips. (NOT the dark ones, or the regular ones. Blecht!)

Use about 1/2 a cup less flour than the recipe on the back of the bag calls for.

Bake the cookies for about 1.5 minutes less than said recipe says. (In my oven that's about 7 minutes. But I have a gas oven and someone once told me that makes a difference. Whatever that means).

Voila!

They're are the the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever in History. I swear. (And the raw dough is freakin' amazing too.)"

Thanks Tessa!

New Favourite Blog etc

2005-09-13T23:06:00.000-04:00

Hey, I can play favourites too. This is a cool lockout blog. It would be a cool blog anytime, I think. It's called qiqitiqpuq. Course, I always was a big fan of Northern Exposure.

... and Ouimet has weighed in on our Food Fight:

"I'm trying to quit smoking. This is the only thing that seems to work."

Good luck quitting smoking, Ouimet, and I do mean that sincerely.

More Recipes

2005-09-13T20:17:00.000-04:00

Philly M has risen to the challenge! Philly says of her recipe:

"These cookies never fail. They are studded with intense bursts of candied ginger, the applesauce keeps them chewy and the sugar on the outside makes a nice little crunch. The batch makes about 40 cookies - easier for sharing with your buddies on the line than 12 muffins."

THREE-GINGER APPLESAUCE COOKIES

Blend together: 3/4 cup sugar1/2 cup applesauce 1/4 cup vegetable oil

When smooth, add:
1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon rind
1 tablespoon grated ginger root
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour above into a well in the middle of these sifted ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Stir in: 3/4 cup chopped crystalized ginger

The dough will be stiff. Chill for a few hours. Scoop the dough, one teaspoon at a time, and roll each scoop into a ball shape between your hands (you may want to flour your hands - keep the dough cool while working if possible). Toss the ball around in a little bowl of sugar to coat. Place on a lightly greased pan, flatten slightly with a fork, or even better, the bottom of a plastic spool of thread (it'll look like a flower). Bake for about 15 minutes in a 350F oven. Cool on racks... serve with the beverage of your choice (I'm partial to a dram of Ardbeg and some tea, myself).

***

Not to be outdone, Matt Watts has responded to the Lock Out Food Challenge by unveiling his famous pie. Now if only he would tell us how to bake it...

***

Dan Misener writes: "I don't have any great recipes to share (Tim Hortons and KD are staples in my diet), but I know two gentlemen who do: Mat and Dave from Let's Get Baked with Mat and Dave."

***

Soon to come... a recipe from everyone's favourite Tessa (he typed optimistically...) :-)

Recipe Time

2005-09-13T13:38:00.000-04:00

Sadly, senior management remains out to lunch, but there's no reason why we should go hungry while they feast on the remains of public broadcasting.

Behold, some lockout recipes from locked out fiddle players, bloggers and more:

The first, from violin virtuoso Laurence:

"This one's a no-brainer and thus perfect for a Scot. It's also my favourite comfort food as my waistline demonstrates:

Take 2 potatoes and one sweet potato/yam. put them in the microwave and cook. (There's usually a preset of some kind. At least there has been on my last 2 microwaves.)Put in a pot and mash with butter, milk and seasoning. Maybe Cajun seasoning to remind us of the wonders of New Orleans.Serve.And then make some more for whoever else is around.........."

This next isn't a recipe per se, but rather the snack food of choice for one Tod Maffin, while he's putting together the Champion of all Lockout Blogs:

"Microwave popcorn. The breakfast of champions. ;-) " writes Tod.

Thanks Tod!

Blogger Cindy in Yellowknife (who got the ball rolling on the Canadian Broadcasting Cookbook) writes:

"Hey, I've already got two recipes:

Pineapple Coconut muffins

And the original lock-out muffins, Banana Zucchini Chocolate chip

These are so good, they're gone within the hour whenever I make them for the picket line. Remember the lock-out muffin motto: "Can't fight The Man on an empty stomach!"

Coming soon, I've been promised recipes from blogger (and radio host) Philly M:

"hey workerbee, I'm on it - lobio tkemali and 3-ginger applesauce cookies coming up ASAP. "

...and the infamous Tessa, who writes...

"CBCWorkerbee, I am thinking about my recipe. Though that’s a toughie, as my appetite’s plummeted since the lockout began and I’ve developed horrendous eating habits. (Last week there was a day in which my sustenance consisted of a glass of milk and a hunk of cheese.)"

Keep 'em comin', folks... I get real hungry writing these posts. And better yet, whip'em up and bring them to the picket line.

Here's mine, before I get on with my life:

"Lock Out Choc Out"

1" square of Parawax (half of 1 block)
Enough chocolate chips to cover Parawax (aprox 8 oz)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup icing sugar
2 1/2 cups Rice Krispies

Using double boiler, melt Parawax. Cover Parawax with chocolate chips and melt. Turn off heat. Add peanut butter and melt. Add icing sugar and stir. Add Rice Krispies and stir. Put in 9X11 pan. Refrigerate 10 minutes. Cut, then eat. Digest, then eat more. Repeat.

You can omit the Parawax if you like, and you don't really have to use a double boiler.

Enjoy.

Conversations With Managers

2005-09-13T13:17:00.000-04:00

Lately a lot of managers have made it a point to stop and talk. One, who has a history of laudatory behaviour on the line, freqently providing food and really taking the time to talk, really talked to me the other day. I'm afraid I got into it a bit with her.

She mentioned that the senior managers are always making the rounds inside, answering questions. She said that many inside are not afraid to ask the hard questions of these people. I said, what questions? She said, you know, they want to know when this will end, what the plan is, that sort of thing. I said that my first question would be, "What the F*** are you people thinking?"

She laughed uncomfortably and said that both sides are right and wrong, both management and the union. I asked, how so? She said, well, we get all our information from management inside and you get all your information from the union, so we're both biased as a result. I pointed out that in fact I've heard very little from the union, except the odd matter-of-fact update that seems pretty devoid of rhetoric. Instead I get most of my information online, from locked out investigative journalists with nothing better to do than attempt to get to the bottom of what's going on.

I continued to press her. I said, why doesn't somebody ask them why they can't pen some kind of interim agreement? They're talking, we might as well be working while they're talking, right? She replied that even interim agreements take a while to sort out. Bullshit, I thought, thinking of all the competing radio stations in New Orleans that got together almost overnight to broadcast together. I said, are you afraid to speak? I said, if you all spoke with one voice, refusing to buy into what might well result in the demise of public broadcasting in this country, perhaps you might accomplish something. She shook her head. You just can't talk to senior management that way. People would get fired.

She brought up the famous Krista and Fred memo. Nobody seems to give them any credit for rescinding that memo, she pointed out. They changed their mind, saw reason. They deserve credit for that, she said. I said, "Should we give Pat Robertson credit for changing his mind about assassinating the president of Venezuela? He's still a goof, isn't he? I question his sincerity, and I question theirs."

At which point I felt I had gone too far and apologized. This was a good person I was talking to, I reminded myself.

It wasn't her fault she suffered a bad case of Stockholm Syndrome.

Lockout Dreams

2005-09-13T12:47:00.000-04:00

Had my first lockout dream last night. It's been said that there's nothing more boring than another person's dreams. Having said that, I'm not going to spare you the details.

I dreamt that we were picketing outside the Broadcast Centre at night. We completely surrounded the place. I was with some francophone colleagues... I speak French (after a fashion) but I was having a lot of trouble understanding them. The dream stuttered and I found myself inside the building. I thought, "Is the lockout over?" But I could see the picket lines outside. My God, they'll think I crossed the picket line! I tried to get out, and wound up in the basement levels. Water was rising from the floor, emergency crews were trying to deal with it. Suddenly the place was filled with my colleagues trying to escape. The crews were warning us: "Get out! Get out now!" but it was impossible to tell which way to go.

The water continued to rise. Debris barred our way. Soon we floated in water several metres deep. I tried desperately to keep a female colleague afloat. Debris struck me and we separated; I lost her beneath the waves.

I made it to a floating bit of debris, mourning my colleague. The Broadcast Centre drifted away in chunks of jagged flotsam. The dream stuttered again and I found myself in an endless convoy of dishevelled former CBC employees on the road to an uncertain future.

Not hard to interpret that dream.

Sorry to inflict it on ya.

While Waitin' For The Recipes to Roll In...

2005-09-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

Andre Alexis with unidentified picketer...

Frivolity

2005-09-12T22:50:00.000-04:00

A call for recipes at such a serious time. What am I thinking? I'm thinking mood, is what I'm thinking. Morale. Some folks are despairing. Others are posting potentially bad news. Others are thinking food, and frankly I like where Other's head is at. You're gonna like where my head's at when I post my recipe for "Lock Out Choc Out!" (Names are important...)

I've got more psuedo-serious thoughts on this whole thing but right now some other folks have got the market cornered on that one. So I'm going to concentrate on stomachs for a post or two.

It doesn't mean that I'm not taking this whole thing seriously. Au contraire... it's proof that I am.

The proof is in the pudding, after all.

Food Fight!

2005-09-12T21:26:00.000-04:00

It's a soft news day. I'm afraid the picket line hero stories just aren't forthcoming (okay, it's only been a day, give it a while) but I've had another bright idea. I'm sorry, I just can't do the hard news 24/7 like Tod and Robin, bless their journalistic hearts. Cindy in Yellowknife has posted a recipe for Lockout Muffins and I'm thinkin'... food fight!

Tomorrow I'm going to post a lockout related recipe and I challenge everyone to do the same. Hey, even you managers are welcome to join in, especially those of you who (for shame!) have been sneaking food to us on the line. You know who you are! :-) Hmm... I'd love to know what Rabinovitch is snackin' on as he dreams up yet another indignity for the employees he (allegedly) cares so much about.

Post the recipe to my comments, or e-mail it to me cbcworkerbee@gmail.com, and I'll post it on the big screen. One recipe per person. Just something delicious to get us through this lockout... ummm... maybe something economical. But tasty.

Or imaginary...

If you're a fellow blogger, post a recipe. I mean it... even you serious journalistic folks. What do journalists eat, anyway? Do you even have time to eat? Tod, we've seen your workstation... what snacks are you hiding behind there? Robin, there's no way you could get through one of those long, thought provoking posts of yours without gobbling something without at least a little bit of peanut butter in it. What is it? John, what's everyone eatin' on the rock these days? John in Toronto? John in Vancouver? Philly, what do you snack on wherever the heck you are? Tessa, don't hold out on us... Tom, Tania, Sheila, Dan, Justin...

...Aigle, Matt, Ouimet... I'm sorry if I've left anybody out...

...what do gnomes eat?

Posting mine tomorrow... and it rocks.

It's got chocolate in it.

Lockout Grows Annoying

2005-09-12T08:40:00.000-04:00

Time to get back to work, folks. I've enjoyed the time off, I really have, so far the lockout's been everything I hoped it would be, but there's such a thing as too much of a good thing. Yes, I've got a lot done, I completely organized the big filing cabinet, fixed the fence, got lots of sunshine and exercise (infinite laps around the broadcast centre @ a quarter of a mile a lap), spent lots of quality time with the family, and cooked many a fine meal for said family, folks that ordinarily don't get a chance to eat with me during the week because it's a long, long commute and I usually don't get back home 'til after midnight or thereabouts. So there certainly have been plusses.

But the minuses are starting to add up. I'm starting to forget things. I'm not quite sure where my desk is anymore. What is it that I used to do inside? Something to do with the floors? My Swiss bank account manager called. It doesn't look good... soon I'm going to have to sell one of the chalets and trade in the Lamborghini. And that damned gnome is driving me nuts on the picket line... if I hear one more thing about his beard I'm going to rip it clean off his face.

I need to get back to work. My self esteem is plummeting; I'm starting to lose faith in my divinity. I've forgotten all my passwords. I felt a chill in the air yesterday... I can't picket in the cold (again). My feet hurt. I have a toothache. My hair is falling out (oh wait, no that happened years ago). I love my work (what I remember of it, anyway), and I can't wait to get back to it. So thanks for the vacation but I'm good now.

Really.

Heroes

2005-09-11T18:09:00.000-04:00

In lieu of stunning insights of my own, take a look at this glimpse into what heros are made of, from blogger CBC Drone.

Another such hero is radio producer Karen Levine, who from what I understand refused to cross the picket line back in 1981, and was fired for it, although eventually rehired. I don't know the details of this story; feel free to fill me in, anyone.

If anybody knows of other such stories, I'd love to hear them. Leave a comment, or e-mail me at cbcworkerbee@gmail.com

Gnome Shirks Picket Duty

2005-09-11T14:49:00.000-04:00

Pedro the Gnome found lying down on the job... shirking picket duty!

Okay, now I'm just being silly. These are the kind of pictures you take waiting for the Go Train after picketing sixteen hours.

Off to cut the lawn, do the dishes, hang out the clothes, feed the cats... man I'm looking forward to picketing ten hours tomorrow.

"Anonymous" Floats Alternative Funding Idea

2005-09-11T14:07:00.000-04:00

Here's an excerpt from an idea for an alternative funding formula that someone posted to my binding arbitration post a while back. I have reservations about the idea (who determines how much where, and what makes them more qualified than us to determine it... do we really want to make ourselves more dependant on bureaucrats and politicians in Ottawa?) but this is the kind of debate we should be engaging in:

"We all know the cbc is underfunded. we also know that no amount of complaining about is has done any good. i can't help but wonder if we were funded differently - then perhaps, we could make the argument more persuasively.here's what i'm suggesting. before the canada health and social transfer ($$$ money from the feds to the provinces), ottawa sent money targeted for 3 envelopes. health, education and social services. provinces had to spend in those areas accordingly.once it became the CHST, it was a lump sum the provinces could portion out any way they chose and the accountability was lost.

perhaps the cbc should be funded in a targetted way. instead of a lump sum - a specific amount for regional, national, radio, french, drama/entertainment/ sports etc. then the CBC couldn't engage in voodoo accounting. but more important, when one area was found wanting, the cbc could say - well we spent all the money we had for that department.

of course regular external audits would have to be done to make sure the money was spent where is was supposed to. but it would also put pressure on the feds. no local and regional presence??? well we've only got 50 million dollars for that! the idea needs some work - but i think it's a campaign we could sell and win.

the cbc always complains it's asked to do too much with too little. well the feds should be forced to fund exactly what it thinks the cbc MUST do. what it doesn't fund, we don't do. what it doesn't fund appropriately, we don't do well. as it stands right now, we've got all of the responsibility of meeting countless demands within our mandate with diminishing resources and then we're criticized for letting some things slide in favour of something else. if this kind of funding was in place in 1990, the closures wouldn't have happened - they COULDN'T have happened. and we wouldn't be in this ridiculous situation where we keep trying to reinvent supper shows."

An idea floated by Anonymous, posting to my comments section.

Must... Stop... Blogging...

2005-09-10T22:31:00.000-04:00

Nah.

I've noticed that several lock out bloggers have let their blogs slide, though, while others are starting to slip off topic. Hey, it's their blogs, their lives, more power to them. They might (gasp!) actually have lives. And who knows, maybe someday (thousands of years from now) I too might lose interest in this blog.

Umm... not to suggest that the lockout might last several thousand years. When the lockout's ended I just may continue this blog, make it a sort of an insider's critique of the CBC.

Right up until they fire my ass, that is.

In the meantime, it seems to me that the lock out blogs are (naturally) changing character somewhat. Tod Maffin and John Gushue are no longer doing their blog reduxes to the extent that they were, probably because:

A. it's too time consuming
B. they have lives, and
C. because Tessa Sproule is doing it for them. She also does it for the CBC On The Line page.

Instead, Tod and John are doing more the sort of thing that I do, which is to include salient links in the body of posts whenever doing so seems appropriate.

Other bloggers are falling off the map entirely, including Curious Monkey, which is odd, considering Curious Monkey got mentioned in the Globe (or the Star, or the Post, can't remember which) early on. Perhaps the exposure frightened monkey off. I jokingly chastised Dan Misener on the line yesterday for not updating his blog and he turned bright red and mumbled something about being in love, no time for blogs. Good on ya, Dan! And, famously, Ouimet is apparently giving up the ghost, attempting to hand off the baton to some other manager.

I scanned all the blogs tonight and spotted about a dozen, fifteen max (I wasn't really counting... I do actually have a life, you know) that had been recently updated, that looked like they had more than a smidgeon of life left to them. I won't tell you which ones, cause it's more fun just to wade through them all and see for yourself.

In another couple of weeks it'll just be us hard core bloggers left, blogging with anything resembling regularity.

And a week or two after that we'll be blogging from the inside.

Best Sign Seen (Friday, Sept 9th)

2005-09-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Ian Cauthery.

We need more signs like this. They're printing the lame generic lockout stuff on both sides of the bristleboard now.

Stop doing that! (Umm... please?)

It doesn't give people like Mr. Cauthery a place to draw their great stuff.

The Infamous Webcam

2005-09-10T20:32:00.000-04:00

In the off chance you were wondering exactly where it is...

Here's a view from further back:

Anonymity

2005-09-10T10:37:00.000-04:00

John Gushue has taken aim at anonymity. He has a valid point. Some bloggers (well, at least one) are using it as a weapon as opposed to a shield, lobbing venomous posts from within their cloak of anonymity. I'd like to know how people feel about it. I hope I haven't abused my anonymity. I've tried to be reasonable as opposed to venomous, although I sometimes get carried away with my rhetoric (sorry).

I may quietly add my real name to my profile eventually. The fact is most of my friends in Toronto already know who I am, and I can't imagine that too many other people really care. Does my anonymity undermine the points I'm trying to make? Should I have the courage to step forward and take responsiblity for my opinions?

Or is discretion the better part of valour?

CRTC Trouble

2005-09-10T10:20:00.000-04:00

I'll be posting little bits and pieces all weekend, as there's a lot I want to post and I don't want it all jumbled in one long, incomprehensible post. Plus I have a busy family weekend ahead of me, and if I'm caught on the computer too much I'm in the doghouse.

I really hate sleeping in the doghouse.

So this morning's bit (aside from the Bob pic below) is this: according to one source, CBC television is risking trouble with the CRTC. I quote: "CBC is in violation of its broadcast charter for support of impaired viewers and local news coverage." This is full net. The CRTC could potentially come down heavy on the CBC for this... and I hope they do.

Last Man Out

2005-09-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

Locked out out radio news announcer Bob McGregor was "the last man" out when the lock out was declared. A manager wanted him to read only one minute of the newscast at midnight, but Bob insisted on reading the entire newscast before allowing himself to be escorted out. He said he felt that it was the "professional thing to do."

The Sixteen Hour Day

2005-09-10T01:15:00.000-04:00

It was dark when I started...

And dark when I finished:

Well, the flash makes it look brighter than it was. Trust me, it was dark. Started at 5:30am and finished at 9:30pm. Sure hope I added it up right. Wouldn't want to be off by an hour!

Did a lot of talking and thinking that will no doubt prompt a few posts over the next few days. Snapped a few interesting pictures, too, which I'll post here and there. In the meantime, thanks to Robin Rowland for seconding my thoughts on binding arbitration (although he actually brought the subject up first). Robin also assured me that when he used the word "vocation" in one of his posts, he meant it (mostly) in a good way. I thanked him for clearing that up in an e-mail which, as a bonus, revealed my top secret identity, which unfortunately isn't that much of a bonus as I think it's well on it's way to being one of the worst kept secrets of the millenia.

A demain...

Rabinovitch Should Resign

2005-09-08T20:21:00.000-04:00

Oh gee, did I say that already?

My bad.

Tomorrow is my sixteen hour picket day. I phoned a friend on the nightshift yesterday. He did sixteen hours on Tuesday. He laughed when I said I was doing it tomorrow. A sad, maniacal kind of laugh.

We spoke about the nightshift. They're a different breed, the night shift. Hardier. Grittier. Sleepier. Oddly, my friend hadn't heard about the famous Krista and Fred memo. He also subscribed to the notion that this lockout is all about saving the corporation money in wages, and that when the corporation has saved enough money, it'll be over. He wasn't familiar with the union busting theory. I suggested this theory to my friend. "Nah," he scoffed. "It's all about saving dough." He sounded distracted... I could hear some kind of sporting event on the tv in the background. I mentioned the blogs. He said he wasn't up on them. I told him I was doing one. There was a long pause in which it sounded like somebody scored. "Well, the waiter should have taken it back," he told me.

So I probably won't post tomorrow until after midnight. I guess technically that would be the day after tomorrow. Until then, I highly recommend you keep yourself entertained with Matt Watt's blog. Start right from the beginning (it begins a few months before the lockout) and read the whole thing right through.

Really.

See you tomorrow, if you're out there.

I'll be the one with the hat.

Globe and Mail Poll

2005-09-08T13:09:00.000-04:00

Get your vote in. The Globe and Mail is asking whether Canada needs the CBC.

The poll is on the top right hand side. Don't get distracted by all the other stories that we ought to be covering but can't.

For the record, I voted yes.

Binding Arbitration

2005-09-08T10:02:00.000-04:00

My father is a civilized, intelligent man, and he belonged in a union most if not all of his working life. As a kid I remember somebody going on strike somewhere, prompting me to ask Dad, "Could you guys ever go on strike?"

"No," he said. "With us it could only ever go to binding arbitration." He explained to me that in a civilized country, in a civilized age, we should go about our business in a civilized fashion.

A bit of a tangent... this whole lockout puts me in mind of the great fish war. A few years ago, if you recall, Brian Tobin just about took us to war with Spain over fish. Imagine... Canada at war with Spain in this day and age! You might not recall, but both sides had boats with guns off the coast of Newfoundland. There is no question but that the cause was just. Spain had just about depleted fish stocks and yet refused to stop fishing. What choice had we but to resort to violence? And before you knew it this peace loving nation was all afire with the notion that yeah, Canada could actually kick some butt, and we were righteous, we were proud, and sure enough we saved the fish, but man! We just about went to war with Spain. In this day and age.

It's only the result of considerable luck and some keen diplomacy that we managed to emerge from the altercation with no sanctions from the world community (except for Spain)... and that no blood was shed. According to James Bartleman, Chretien's foreign affairs advisor at the time (and my primary source for this little sermon), Europeans were flabbergasted that Canada should resort to such means. In an age when we're all supposed to be civilized.

When confronted with the fact that I'm actually locked out of work, deprived of income and dental benefits (I woke up the other day with a toothache, believe it or not), I cannot help but think: how is this possible in this day and age? Twenty-five years ago my father's union utilized binding arbitration. Mind you, this was in a civilized portion of our great land. Why such civilized notions have not spread to the rest of this unruly country in that time is beyond me.

I have broached the subject of binding arbitration on the line. When the laughter dies down, I am gently reminded that in fifteen months they could not come up with an agreement; there is no reason to believe that binding arbitration would work.

This is where I get passionate. Brace yourselves: The reason they never came up with an agreement is because THEY KNOW THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO. If they were forced into binding arbitration neither side could resort to a strike or lockout. Management could not count on forcing us into a lockout situation in an effort to break the union. Both sides would be rather more motivated to come up with a deal in the time that they had. Lest an arbitrator do it for them.

Strikes and lockouts are uncivilized and unnecessary.

Binding arbitration, folks.

We'd never have to walk the line again.

Moved to Blog

2005-09-07T17:03:00.000-04:00

When I first started blogging the lockout there were about twelve bloggers doing the same. That was at the beginning of week two. Now, according to at least one source, there are over fifty. Not all of them are active; many of them post once a week, if at all. Still, the Blog Redux People have their work cut out for them keeping up with it all. Of the bloggers that do post semi-regularly, everybody has a different approach. Some goofy, some hostile, some serious, some ambivalent, some over the top, some poetic. I won't say who I consider what, just that I respect them all.

Myself, I think I'm somewhere between reflective and rhetorical, probably erring on the side of too earnest sometimes. I try to make the odd point. I try to present any new information I happen to uncover. But mostly I just try to stay on topic, although sometimes I fail miserably, such as in this post. What are ya gonna do.

The problem is it's been awhile since I've been out to picket. Usually I come back from the line brimming with posts; I'll be picketing sixteen hours on Friday... with any luck that will generate a few good posts, not to mention several blisters, and perhaps a few good pics as well.

Sometimes I catch myself wishing I was one of them journalistic types, with perhaps a bit more time on my hands, capable of creating such amazingly comprehensive sites as Tod Maffin's, or as insightful and informative as that of Robin Rowland's (his current post notwithstanding). But alas I am not a journalist per se, or even pro bono, let alone obscurum per obscurius.

And so it is that I fling myself violently out of bed in the middle of the night, troubled by the sure and certain knowledge that I really have to pee. And as I stand there, peeing, I ask myself the hard questions. I mean the really hard ones, such as: why do I have to pee so much at night? And then: what is the point of blogging? After which I rouse myself in the morning, pee again, then stare at the computer for an inordinate amount of time, digesting other locked out workers' posts. Wondering if any of us are having any impact.

I confess I find it odd that my blog gets so many hits, and yet so few comments. Am I on target? Or considered a nut? Beneath contempt, perhaps? Are people annoyed that I'm anonymous? Is it any wonder that I'm anonymous after paragraphs like that last one? Sheesh!

And yet I continue to blog. It's good to see so many other lockout blogs. It's a healthy blogosphere, very little in the way of chlorofluorocarbons so far.

Keep 'em comin'.

Deux Sollicitudes

2005-09-07T15:51:00.000-04:00

From blogger Picket in the Park:

"...when the media talks about the "labour dispute" at the CBC, many of them are quick to say that this affects only English Television and Radio, since our colleagues in Québec belong to a different union (or unions to be exact). This frustrates me because they fail to realize or take into account that every CBC location across the country has the Radio-Canada counterpart."

Canadian francophones outside of Quebec probably depend on Radio Canada even more than their English Canadian counterparts. Most francophones outside of Quebec are probably at least somewhat bilingual (that's just a guess) but still I imagine the elimination of this service rankles considerably.

Rowland Issues Correction

2005-09-06T20:35:00.000-04:00

Robin Rowland may be right about a lot of things, but he issued the following correction on his blog today:

"In an earlier post I reported that the Canadian Media Guild's strike mandate expired on September 8. It would have expired--if management had not ordered the lockout. Under a Canadian Industrial Relations Board ruling when the CBC locked out its Quebec employees, a lockout voids the best before date on a strike vote."

Declining Bank Accounts

2005-09-06T10:59:00.000-04:00

A glimpse into a locked out worker's deteriorating financial status.

Rabinovitch Should Resign

2005-09-06T08:59:00.000-04:00

Looks like Ouimet is thinking pretty much what I was thinking in my last post. That the Feds should replace Rabinovitch with someone actually capable of running the national public broadcaster, as opposed to someone hell bent on destroying it.

But really, today I'm thinking that Rabinovitch himself should just do the honourable thing and resign. That's usually what happens when a prominent public servant messes up. Yes, he should simply resign, along with the rest of his cronies, the whole lot of them, anyone implicated in this whole debacle. They should admit that they messed up. That they took Canada's national public broadcaster off the air (and worse, kept it off the air) at a most inopportune time, just as stunning, unprecedented world events were transpiring.

Of course, willfully depriving the Canadian public at any time of a service that we own, that many of us rely on, and that we continue to pay for every single day that it is effectively hamstrung is deplorable, and should be eminent grounds for the dismissal of those responsible.

So just do the right thing and resign, Bob. And George, and Dick.

Go screw up somebody else's public institution, if you really must.

Wishing Canned Clams Well

2005-09-04T22:58:00.000-04:00

Everybody please wish Canned Clams well, his four month old son is ill, they're testing him now to see if it's serious. I pray that it's not.

Heads Will Roll

2005-09-04T13:39:00.000-04:00

Actually managed to stop thinking about the lockout by getting outside, hitting the lakeshore, enjoying the weather. I'm sure this is a good thing, perhaps even a healthy thing, but you have to understand that I'm not trying to refrain from thinking about the lockout. I'm one of those sad, annoying people that Robin Rowland was talking about in his Fort Confusion post who feels that working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is bit of a vocation. (Not sure Robin quite meant it as a compliment, though...) Course these days it feels more like a vacation than a vocation... albeit a vacation sans pay.

So for some perverse reason I don't really mind thinking about the lockout. (I'm far from the only one...) These days, as I watch the senior managers effectively snatch defeat from the jaws of victory what with the Guild's failure to fold, and virtually all support coming down on any side other than theirs, I'm thinking about how to make it work for us. I'm thinking perhaps some good may come of this lockout after all. Course I am a damned fool optimist.

This whole lockout thing must have seemed like a great idea to senior management not all that long ago... which, of course, is precisely how such catastrophes are born: the result of a series of small decisions that all seemed like a good idea at the time. I expect they've wiped those smug smiles off their faces by now. For while I don't think it's exactly a catastrophe yet, if it continues past October it will be. A catastrophe for senior management, a catastrophe for the CBC, a catastrophe for the Canadian public. Not to mention a catastrophe --or at the very least pretty darned annoying -- to me and about 5499 other people. It's for this reason that I'll go out on a limb and suggest that shortly after the Guild's strike mandate expires (Sept 8th... thanks again to Robin Rowland for that bit of info) we should start to see some high wattage light at the end of the tunnel.

If for some bizarre reason the lockout is not ended before October (which, incidentally, would indicate certain as opposed to merely apparent madness on the part of senior management) then a catastrophe will indeed have occurred. The CBC as we know it will have become a thing of the past. Most of us staff will blow the dust off our resumes and go to work for Tim Hortons (or the equivalent), hard-core fans will sigh ruefully and learn to love Lloyd, and if there is any justice in the universe, heads will begin to roll. For surely to God somebody somewhere (and I'm not talking about someone in the capital of Botswana) will hold certain people accountable for clubbing to death a large, helpless Canadian Institution.

This is where I'm seeing some serious silver lining. Such accountability has to happen, hopefully sooner rather than later, ideally before the aforementioned clubbing. It has to happen because this management team has gambled with Canada's public broadcaster and lost. At the risk of belabouring the obvious, the single biggest natural disaster occurs in North America and Canada's public broadcaster isn't there to cover it. It's tape we're not going to get back. Somebody's got to answer for that.

Regardless of when this accountability happens, it's an opportunity to put someone in charge of the place that actually knows a little something about broadcasting. Preferably someone passionate about public broadcasting. Myself, I wouldn't mind at all if they considered it a vocation.

Just as long as it isn't some bean counter hell bent on making the place appear to run efficiently at the expense of having it actually run efficiently. And killing it in the process.

Not Sure What to Call This One...

2005-09-03T21:05:00.000-04:00

From EmployéJetable's Blog... cool pic, if a tad pessimistic...

Do the Right Thing

2005-09-03T09:48:00.000-04:00

A friend said to me on the line, "The man behind this lockout really needs to head back to the bunker with a Kalashnikov and just do the right thing."

Can't quite bring myself to condone this sentiment. Actually, let me satisfy my lawyers by stating unequivocally that I am not in favour of suicide on the part of anybody, short of, say (insert favourite historical evil person here).

The part of the quote that I do whole-heartedly endorse is the "Do the Right Thing" part. More than just a great movie, the sentiment is put forward in Robin Rowland's fascinating Fort Confusion post, and it is one that I shall echo here.

Because really, folks, it's time to stop messing around. It's time to do the right thing. Of course, there are many right things to do, not the least of which would include getting the heck off this computer and going outside, it's looking like a really great day out there, but I'm talking about ending this stupid lock out. Oh, did I say stupid? I meant to say stupid.

By this point Bob, Dick and George must know that it's stupid, and the only course of action left to them is to do the right thing (and I don't mean throwing a garbage can through a plate glass window). In the off-chance that one or all of them is reading this (what are the odds?) and they remain a tad confused, I shall endeavour to fuzzify the muddification (a nickel to the Foth for that one).

Simply put, the right thing is to end the lock out, contract or no contract. Robin suggests an interim contract, and I'm down with that. Under no circumstances can the lock out be allowed to continue past October or the corporation is toast. Surely I don't have to elaborate why that is the case. (Sigh...) Okay, the reason the corporation will be toast if we're still out past October is because the hockey broadcasting will suck, the Fall Launch will be totally messed up (if it isn't already), everybody will be listening and watching elsewhere and the word "disgusted" will be the first thing on everyone's lips should someone dare to broach the subject of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in polite company.

Guys, swallow your pride and end the lock out. Now. Before it's too late. You don't even have to admit that you were wrong. Just do the right thing and maybe, if you continue to behave, we'll still talk to you when we get back inside. Really.

Otherwise I'm afraid it's going to have to be the silent treatment.

Muzzle That Blogger!

2005-09-02T22:14:00.000-04:00

You'd a thunk I'd a run outta stuff to say by now. Alas, it's not the case.

Early on the picket line yesterday morning (over delicious pancakes and sausages whipped up by the local NDP) I got to talking to an old friend who'd dropped by to visit. This was a fellow who'd worked for the CBC for... gawd, he must have started in the fifties, or sixties at the very latest. A contemporary of Alex Frame. ('Course he doesn't look a day past fifty... okay, sixty.) Worked contract all those years, although it must be said that this was by choice. Anyway, they unceremoniously let him go this past year despite his wealth of experience and competence. After all those years no announcement, no party, no nuthin'.

Yeah, the CBC values its employees. Uh huh.

So anyway this fellow was telling me about money being wasted. Before they let him go, they commissioned a bunch of stuff from him, paid for it, and then never used it. I'm not talking disc shows, I'm talking about material that cost a pretty penny. Stuart MacLean of Vinyl Cafe fame produces Vinyl Cafe with his own company. According to one source, CBC Radio twisted his arm to do this, it wasn't Stuart's preference. Stuart (I'm told) apparently feels that it costs CBC Radio more to do the Vinyl Cafe this way. Why they wanted this arrangement is a mystery. Money frittered away.

I've written before about the CBC's absolute mania for tweaking floor plans. I know that this obsession is ostensibly about recouping money with real estate profits, but from what I hear it ain't workin'.

So this is what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that if you look at this whole lockout on its most superficial level, it's about Rabinovitch and company trying to operate in a fiscally responsible manner by making their workforce as flexible as possible (never mind that it hearkens back to serfdom and the middle ages... the times they are a changin', all right: backwards).

But if you get a few neurons firing upstairs you can see that it's not really Rabinovitch's fault, or Stursberg, or even Smith (bear with me here, soon you will see that I'm not really going all Benedict Arnold) because really it's the federal government's fault, for not giving the corporation enough money to properly function. Yes, you knew that all along, and now you're smiling indulgently at l'il ol workerbee, what with his tiny little bee brain and all.

But that ain't it. The truth (well, okay, the truth as I see it today, which could well be the result of a tiny little bee brain after all, not to mention too much sun and strawberry wine) is one layer deeper (not to mention seriously telegraphed a few paragraphs ago...) It's what my friend was talking about, and it's what I was going on about in the floor plan post I mentioned earlier. (Which means that I'm repeating myself... sorry.)

The truth is this: I will not go so far as to say that we don't need more money from the federal goverment. We sure as hell do. We need a lot more. But in the meantime it sure seems to me that the CBC manages to piss a lot of the money that it does have away.

And if I'm really honest (damn that strawberry wine) probably some of us employees are guilty as well. How many times have I hit up my managers for more gear? Gear that I feel I "must" have, that I "couldn't make do without." Another recent conversation on the line involved chairs... this fellow told me that every year he has to fend off people trying to give him a new chair. "The old one still works," he tells them. "Piss off."

'Course then there's the problem of "separate budgets" and "end of the fiscal" spending. No... no, I will not get started on that.

Not today, anyway.

It's Good Exercise, If Nothing Else

2005-09-02T09:30:00.000-04:00

After my obnoxious lecture advising people to watch their eating and smoking habits during the lockout, several people confessed to me yesterday that they have indeed gained four or five pounds, staying home moping or spending too much time in front of the computer. Picketing like the folks above (this view from Wellington Street, the Broadcast Centre's east side) effectively reverses this trend.

Wear comfortable shoes.

Yesterday's Picketing...

Yesterday was another ten hour day. I was in a good mood most of the day, but around four o'clock started feeling kind of wonky. I realized I wasn't drinking enough fluids, and the water situation on the line isn't one hundred percent ideal, although much of it is my own fault. They have water coolers, but you have to bring your own container, which is cool, except I either A. forget to bring one, or B. destroy or lose the one I do have. Especially if it's a styrofoam cup I'm carrying. One lap and that thing's crumbs in my hand.

So I bought a milkshake and a bottle of water from a nearby ice cream truck and soon felt much better. The milkshake's won't become a habit; trying to follow my own advice and retain my girlish figure, such as it is... and I am aware that this last paycheque was half a paycheque, and represents the last pay we'll get in a while. So I must perforce become more fiscally prudent.

Plus I must say that the ice cream truck guy was not friendly, which is strange. I've bought ice creams from this same fellow relatively often over the years, and he's always been friendly. But I had my picket sign on this time and he was about as frosty as his treats. Some anti-labour sentiment there? Or has he lost business what with the locked out employees cutting back on their treats? If so, he would do well not to alienate the customers he does have.

About midway through my day I volunteered to be a picket captain. They were happy to have me, although a spot didn't open up until 6pm. Had you viewed the Live Outside CBC Toronto Cam between 6 and 8pm you would have seen me picket captaining happily away, hobnobbing with burly security guards Biff and Dirk, who were only too happy to reveal their martial arts experience and share their war stories, in which spine injuries and dislocated jaws figure prominently. Injuries not necessarily restricted to the security guards. Apparently this is the same company that attempted to intimidate CEP members the last time round. I said they seem much more approachable this time. Biff informed me that it was the nature of the company back then to be more intimidating. Now they are kindler, gentler thugs.

Curious, I asked Biff what would happen if we all foolishly got it into our heads to storm the entrance, perform some kind of a sit-in. There's only three or four of you, I pointed out. He told me that they can sense when something of that nature is brewing. They'd bring in about fifty more guys in heavy protective gear and "gear up." They would not be afraid to knock some heads. Indeed Biff, who described himself as a "nice guy," appeared to positively relish the notion of physical violence. "It's the adrenaline rush," he confessed.

I met several inside workers, plenty of managers. They seemed to make it a point to talk to me, in direct contrast to the famous Fred and Krista memo circulating recently. The memo came up in conversation, of course. One manager reminded me that the memo was written before the lock-out began, and he believed that it was sent to a small group of employees. In any case, everybody seemed to feel that it was a woefully misguided memo, indicating an unfortunate lack of common sense, and few (if anybody) are following it.

Before I hit the train for home a friend told me a story about his uncle, who was a dock worker in St. John New Brunswick in the years between the wars. When a new guy came in to work, they'd ask him to sign up as a member of the union. If he refused, they'd pick him up and throw him off the dock. If he cried for help, they'd say, "Give us your hand, brother, and we'll be happy to help you."

After which they'd help him out, dry him off, give him something warm to eat and drink and send him home to his wife and kids. Usually they came back the next day and signed.

Or so the story goes.

Famous Blunders

2005-09-02T00:32:00.000-04:00

I was thinking today, out there enjoying the sunshine and a day full of amiable conversation with old friends whom I rarely get to spend this much time with, that locking out a rich, well organized union in the summer has to be right up there with fighting a land war in Russia.

So far this lockout has been everything I hoped it would be. Lots more time with my wife and kids, gettin' things done, hanging out with friends, enjoying the weather.

You're going to have to do better than that, Dick.

The World is Paying Attention...

2005-09-02T00:29:00.000-04:00

We have attracted the attention of The Guardian. And I'm not talking about the one in Charlottetown.

Suggestion Box

2005-09-01T22:12:00.000-04:00

1. Better signs. Okay, it isn't the most important thing on the planet, but it isn't like we have tons of other pressing business on the picket line. Take the time to create a clever sign, something that will draw the eye. Maybe somebody will remember it, or snap a picture of it, help get the word out, unlike our thousand other generic signs. How about a team of clever artists, producing such signs? Maybe we ought to have a contest. A "best sign" contest.

Hey, it's just an idea.

2. Volunteer to be a picket captain. We have a shortage of picket captains. Being picket captain is fun. You get to chat with burly security guards. They'll tell you all about their old injuries, inflicted doing battle with rather more aggressive picketers than us. Reminding you that your job as picket captain is to stay cool, and keep the peace.

3. We need more water on the line. Somebody buy more water. Lots more water. There should be water there all the time. Lots of it. Water. I'm serious.

Either that or milkshakes. I had one today and it really hit the spot.

Hmm.

Forget the water. We need more milkshakes on the line. Somebody buy more milkshakes.

Thanks

2005-08-31T21:18:00.000-04:00

I just want to say that I like John Gushue because he keeps linking to me. Thanks John! Oh yeah, and he has a great, informative blog too. Plus he's from the Rock. What more can you ask for in a person?

Thanks to anyone else who's linked to me, I appreciate it. (That means you, Tod...)

There are a lot of great blogs out there on the lockout, over time perhaps I'll link to more of them, but you pretty much just have to go to Tod or John's page to access them. I linked to Aigle's page because I do have to admit I like the writing on her page, even though I was hurt that Tod picked her as his fave (sniff!) We should have a blogging party sometime just to meet one another when this is all over in February.

Okay, bad joke, sorry. But I stand behind the blog party idea.

Another page I like is Matt Watts, but that's just because I'm a big Matt Watts fan (even though he won't link to me, the bastard! Yeah, I know, he's just being impartial. He won't link to any of us. The bastard!) Matt, if you're out there, I just wanna say: you were always my all time favourite Kid in the Hall. ;-)

An Ugly Piece of Business

2005-08-31T19:02:00.000-04:00

Found this on Locked Out Employee 100000223's site... hope you don't mind me reposting it here, LOE. LOE's best guess it that it's Fred Mattocks and Krista Harris... a memo sent shortly before the lockout:

"On the Friday conference call, we were asked whether managers were expected to visit the picket lines in their locations.

Some of us remember a day when spending a few minutes with picketers was encouraged. Those days were a very different situation than the one we're in now.

It is expected that designated Location Chiefs visit the picket line a couple of times of day to liase with CSM and with the picket captains and to gauge the mood on the line.

However, there should be no other managers or other non-CMG staff visiting the line, nor should there be any attempts to "improve the mood" on the line, by providing food or drink, for example. It's very important, if there is a lock-out, that we bring a quick resolution to the work stoppage. A quick resolution will be helped by picketers focussing on the reality of their situation. Making things more comfortable for the picketers does not support this goal.

Thanks
Fred and Krista"

Draw your own conclusions, folks. My conclusions are not happy ones. It would appear to lend credence to this story.

Only We Can Kill Us

2005-08-31T16:33:00.000-04:00

Reading over other people's blogs and talking to people on the line, I see that people are smoking a lot. Maybe they had resolved to smoke less back when things were cool; maybe they had managed to quit altogether. Now, not only are they smoking again, they are smoking more.

I don't care if you smoke, I really don't. It's your business, and to tell you the truth I actually like the smell of second hand smoke, so that doesn't bug me. I've never been a smoker, so I can't pretend to understand the nature of the addiction; it's probably way more powerful than I can imagine. The closest I can come to understanding it is this: if somebody told me tomorrow that I had to steer clear of chocolate, I don't know if I could do it. I really don't think that I could. In fact I will probably eat some right after this post. Just a little bit. A tiny little bit. And then maybe a bit more.

I understand that it's none of my business, and that you can do with your body whatever you please. You have every right to tell me to piss off and I will, I will never mention it again. And the only reason I bring it up is because somebody close to me recently died of lung cancer and the memory of it is fresh in my mind. It was horrible, the effect on them and the effect on those around them, and now whenever I see somebody with a cigarette, or a cigarello (you know who you are), I think of my friend dying horribly of lung cancer. That's all.

Yes, I know that I'm a hypocrite, and that I'm going to get diabetes with all the chocolate and wind up on insulin, blind with no legs. I understand that. Nobody likes a lecture and I'm sorry, I'm sorry for lecturing.

But I'd like to point something out. The reason you're smoking again, and the reason you're smoking more, is because of CBC senior management (I almost typed "CBC senile management"... think I might be on to something there)... senile management has just gone a way out of their way to make your life miserable, and my point is this: it's bad enough that they've locked us out. Must we allow them to kill us as well?

We need to take care of ourselves during this ridiculous situation. We need to go easy on the donuts and comfort food. We need to hang on to our resolve, not just to survive the lockout, but to survive it with our bodies and spirits intact.

Senile management may be able to lock us out. But only we can kill us.

Laurence Fiddles While CBC Burns

2005-08-31T16:16:00.000-04:00

Laurence Stevenson performs at Lockstock, Monday Aug 31

Workerbee Bristles at Constructive Criticism

2005-08-30T23:07:00.000-04:00

This fellow appeared to take exception to my criticism of the Guild in my post a short while ago entitled Struck Work. Allow me to make my sentiments clear here.

Littlejohn said...
It is very easy to sit on the sidelines and say the Union should have done this or that. But you should have been involved or motivated enough to effect the results. Quit yer whinning?In reality, the union is only as active as you are, so get off yer duff and do it. If you are already up to your neck in being busy, one of the most destructive blows to moral is someone in leadership blowing off steam about someone elses jurisdiction.
4:44 PM

cbcworkerbee said...
I am no more obligated to support the union unconditionally -- a union that has betrayed me twice --than I am to support CBC management. It happens that I do not sit on the sidelines; I picket at least twenty hours a week AND I cover the lockout with this blog, with a large pro union bias despite the odd criticism. Had I known about this incident in time I might well have done something about it. You'll note that I've done something in retrospect; I brought it to everyone's attention.

Make no mistake, I DO support this union. But like CBC management, my wife, myself, my friends, and everyone else on this planet, it is not beyond reproach, and should not bristle at the occasional bit of constructive criticism.

How Do You Feel?

2005-08-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

People often ask me on the line, how do you feel? I've walked the line often enough to know that how I feel on the line is pretty much however I want to feel. If I want to feel discouraged, I feel discouraged. If I want to feel good, I feel good. So yesterday on the line I felt good. There are several ways to make yourself feel good, and I'm not talking about substance abuse (unless you include Tim Horton's coffee and the odd Timbit).

I got to talking to one smart picketer and we agreed on several points. That you have to keep your spirits up. That time goes faster if you talk to interesting people. That if you angle your head just the right way the shadow of your baseball cap makes you look like you have a conehead. We also concluded that far from being discouraged, we should feel privileged to participate in a useful fight, a fight that may not only help us, but may help others in the future, that may well improve someone's standard of living a century from now.

I love the argument that the union ought to get with the times, because they times they are a changin'. A changin' how? Back to the industrial revolution? As my picketer friend said, this move towards contracting may be a trend, but if so it's not a good trend! It's one that must be fought, lest we find ourselves with no guaranteed jobs, no pensions, no benefits, no nuthin' in exchange for our hard work, our dedication, our lives.

So when people ask me how I feel, I tell them I feel good. After which I adjust my cap and pose a question of my own:

"Do you think my shadow makes me look like a conehead?"

LockStock

2005-08-30T00:31:00.000-04:00

LockStock was a big hit on the line today. Here Russ Haymen and a fellow whose name I didn't catch perform Jethro Tull's "Mother Goose" from Aqualung. I could spend every day on the line if it simply consisted of listening to people do Tull covers all day long...

Dogs Locked Out!

2005-08-30T00:18:00.000-04:00

I'm told that dogs have been forbidden from the Toronto picket line. Even cute little ones like the one pictured above. Apparently they frighten people. Myself I think this is probably a good thing... the concrete around the Broadcast Centre is shredding my feet, even through a pair of relatively new sneakers. I can only imagine what it might do to a dog's paws after several laps.

Bloggers Unite!

2005-08-29T07:28:00.000-04:00

Fellow Blogger Matt Watts on the line in Toronto

Struck Work

2005-08-28T21:09:00.000-04:00

Apparently last week a well-liked manager did a bit of a bad thing. He took a CBC Record's gig -- a gig that was to be done by CBC staff -- outside the corporation and recorded the session with a non-CBC recording engineer. The non-CBC recording engineer was a friend of a CBC employee currently on the picket line. The gig went forth in an IATSE hall, with AF of M musicians, which begs the question: Huh?

The Guild was alerted to the situation but did not send picketers to protest the recording. Which begs the question yet again: Huh? The manager in question defended his actions by saying that if he hadn't gone ahead it would have cost the corporation many thousands of dollars. Staff in his department currently on the picket line were not happy with either him or the Guild's response. In their opinion he should have cancelled or postponed the recording, and when he didn't, the Guild should have sent picketers.

The lock out continues to take its toll on friendships, a lock out that increasingly begs the question: Huh?

In Case There Was Any Doubt

2005-08-28T14:03:00.000-04:00

The Manager and His Best Friend

2005-08-28T13:39:00.000-04:00

A manager is inside the Broadcast Centre and his best friend is picketing outside. After his shift, the manager comes outside, spots his best friend, and begins to walk with him. He does not carry a picket sign, naturally. They walk together, doing laps around the Broadcast Centre for awhile, and they lose track of time.

The next day when the manager reports for work he is called into his boss's office and given hell for picketing.

It's stupid. They're just friends, hanging out. Of course we're friends with most of the people inside, and they're friends with us.

Why pretend otherwise?

Picketing in Comfort

2005-08-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

Some picketers get pea soup on the line. Others get Shiatsu massage... this kind fellow stayed for hours and hours on Saturday helping picketers relax.

Brief Picket Report

2005-08-27T23:55:00.000-04:00

Just a brief initial post on today's picketing before I call it a night. The mood was good on the line today despite some pretty wet weather; most people were just trying to complete their twenty hours. Most people I spoke with still seem to think this will all end by early October at the latest, but at least one person is convinced that we're looking at '06, but that was just a feeling on his part, and he laughed everytime he said it as if he found the prospect amusing.

I heard some interesting stories about managers and struck work being done which I'll report on later, and I snapped a few photos like the one of Nora Young below which I'll post throughout the week.

Nora and the Competition

2005-08-27T23:54:00.000-04:00

Back on the picket line today I snapped this shot of frequent CBC Radio Host (today a picket captain) Nora Young, standing before the John Street entrance to the Broadcast Centre. In the background is CTV's infamous advertisement (much longer than I was able to capture in the photo; I think there are three more panels beyond the frame) reminding us that our competition is not sitting idly by.

The Latest

2005-08-26T15:22:00.000-04:00

The second latest rumour was that we may be nearing a return to the negotiating table. The very latest rumour is that returning to the negotiating table may be pointless and therefore we shouldn't get our hopes up.

Another rumour, put forth by Quietly Typing Charlie the alleged Manager, is that CBC may be making some kind of big announcement next week. CBC Radio's Executive Producer of DNTO (when not locked out) Iris Yudai may have scooped Quietly Typing Charlie, however; this big announcement may be that Rabinovitch is on his way out (partially) and that soon CBC will have a new President of the Board, info that Yudai learned from Heritage Minister Liza Frulla. More on this on at Tod Maffin's site (but you already knew that, coming as you did with an 88% probability from that very site).

So as we wait for more interesting developments we while away the time asking ourselves the Really Big Questions. Questions like, are the three Lockout Blogs authored by Managers really authored by Managers? The blogs in question are the abovementioned Charlie, The Tea Maker, aka Ouimet, and Rue, which I believe is short for Ruthie, who has to date posted but one measly post (ah, but it was a long one).

There are, no doubt, those who might say (with no small amount of scorn) "who cares?" but I do not number among those. A good number of us are addicted to following the Lock Out and in the absence of interesting developments we must occupy ourselves somehow (to the neglect of children, lawns, nutrition and personal hygiene). So I propose a simple test to determine if these alleged managers are in fact bona fide managers. Something along the lines of a Turing Test, which, you might recall, was devised to determine whether alleged artificial intelligences are in fact artificial intelligences or simply humans posing as artificial intelligences. I call this test (rather immodestly) The WorkerBee test, and it should suffice to reveal whether the managers in question are managers or simply humans posing as managers.

The test consists of three easy questions. I submit that if the managers refuse to answer the questions there is a strong probability that they are posing as managers. Same if they get one or two of the questions wrong. If all responses are correct, they are almost certainly real life managers, perhaps even CBC managers. This test, based on virtually zero research, should be correct 99 out of a 100 times, except on Thursdays, and does not require that the blogger in question reveal their identity.

Question One: Which is more important to you: Public Broadcasting, or your own neck?

Question Two: Name four pieces of (alleged) art located on the seventh floor of the Broadcast Centre.

Question Three: If required by Senior Management, would you fire your own mother?

Correct answers: Well, heck if I know, I'm not a manager, I'm just a workerbee. Speaking of which, if anybody has any better questions, please lemme know. Surely between 5500 of us we can ferret out the truth.

Cool New Job in Broadcasting

2005-08-26T11:09:00.000-04:00

A cool new broadcasting job just opened up that I think I might apply for. I've got tons more experience than the last dude to hold it.

Apparently they've posted the application online but the link doesn't work. I don't mind competition... if you're looking for a cool new job in broadcasting, you can read all about it here.

Good luck!

cbcworkerbee

New Blog "Assorted Nonsense"

Pining for the Fjords...

Farewell

We Won

It's Over (For Real)

Breaking News

The Fine Print

A Day in the Life

Outta Here

Tod Speaks

Blue Collar Blues

The Latest Offer

Just Plain Bizarre

A Human Face

Stursberg Invited to Film Festival... Not!

Tar and Feathers

Open the Door, and Let Us In

A Neutral Country

More Ratification Questions

Ratification

To Sleep, Perchance to Picket...

Our Illustrious Negotiating Team

Lockout Beard Craze Sweeps Nation

It's Official!

Cold Feet Speaks

TUX

The Russians Are Coming

The Big Bad Board

Stalag CBC

A Conversation With Mr. P.

Burying the Lede

In a Word...

Worth Repeating

The Negotiations: Through a Glass Darkly

On The Line

Vanity

Manna From... Somewhere

CBC Couple

It's Raining Again

Best Sign of the Day

A Picket Captain and His Hat

Would You Wear This Hat?

Epithets

Scabs R Us

Another Recipe...

Aigle, You Are Too Cool

The Punchline

New Favourite Blog etc

More Recipes

Recipe Time

Conversations With Managers

Lockout Dreams

While Waitin' For The Recipes to Roll In...

Frivolity

Food Fight!

Lockout Grows Annoying

Heroes

Gnome Shirks Picket Duty

"Anonymous" Floats Alternative Funding Idea

Must... Stop... Blogging...

Best Sign Seen (Friday, Sept 9th)

The Infamous Webcam

Anonymity

CRTC Trouble

Last Man Out

The Sixteen Hour Day

Rabinovitch Should Resign

Globe and Mail Poll

Binding Arbitration

Moved to Blog

Deux Sollicitudes

Rowland Issues Correction

Declining Bank Accounts

Rabinovitch Should Resign

Wishing Canned Clams Well

Heads Will Roll

Not Sure What to Call This One...

Do the Right Thing

Muzzle That Blogger!