The CBC locked out about 5,500 employees at 12:01 a.m. Monday after no substantial progress was made in last-minute bargaining between Canada’s largest broadcaster and its union, the Canadian Media Guild.
The workers have been without a contract for more than a year, with the CBC saying it needs more flexibility to hire new staff on a contract basis instead of full-time.
The CMG, which represents producers, newsroom staff and technicians, says 30 per cent of the CBC’s workforce is already non-permanent, giving the network all the flexibility it needs.
In an announcement late Sunday evening, the CBC said “the rhythm of negotiation this past week has given no indication of urgency on the part of the union” which it says has not presented a comprehensive offer.
Programming on all CBC services — radio, television and online — will continue, though it will be scaled back. Management says the CBC will continue to broadcast CFL football and NHL hockey games — but possibly without play-by-play commentary or colour analysis. Local radio morning shows will be replaced by a single national broadcast. TV newscasts will be cut back, with more acquired programming and movies aired.
As background, last month, guild members voted 87.3 per cent in favour of giving their negotiating team a strike mandate. The employees have been without a contract since the end of March 2004. Negotiations for a new contract began in May 2004. Employees in Québéc and Moncton, N.B., belong to different unions and are expected to continue working but not to cross over into Ontario to help out.
The broadcaster’s last major dispute was late in 2001, when technical staff were locked out across the country. In some cases, the sound and lighting was not up to usual standards, newscasts were truncated or eliminated, and repeats filled the airwaves.
Among those locked out is Peter Mansbridge, anchor of The National, the country’s flagship television newscast.

Graydongate continues to unfold with new, and more bizarre, revelations made available over the course of each passing hour.
David Carr and Sharon Waxman, at the New York Times, were first out of the gate with confirmation that “Graydon Carter, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, had received a $100,000 payment from Universal Studios in 2003 for suggesting years earlier that the book A Beautiful Mind be made into a film.”
Close on their heels, Claudia Eller, Michael Cieply and Josh Getlin, at the Los Angeles Times, rushed to press with the allegation that Carter “and three former colleagues shared a $1-million advance from the book division of Miramax Films for the rights to publish an anthology of material from the now-defunct Spy magazine, of which Carter was a co-founder and editor.”
Hollywood pundit David Poland weighs in on the controversy, suggesting that Vanity Fair “is not in the business of selling journalism,” and that as we see “Graydon Carter playing kiss-kiss with movie industry people” there’s no real conflict because “Graydon can’t be bought.”
As for VanRamblings, we’re in complete accord with veteran editor Ed Kosner, who writes: “You don’t do any business on the side with people you’re covering. You don’t pitch projects to people your magazine is covering.” Not enough that Carter is a highly paid ($1.5 million U.S.) editor of a prestigious publication, he feels he has to go out and seek to supplement his income by selling favours to the movie executives, directors, stars and publicists that his magazine covers?
Talk about cynical. Talk about avarice. In addition to being a story about conflict of interest, Graydongate is a story about greed. Where’s this story going? Only time will tell. But, Poland aside, it’s not looking good for Carter.

According to L.A. Weekly’s Nikke Fink, both the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times are working on major stories about whether Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is using his close ties to Hollywood to benefit financially. A source close to the action told Defamer that the investigations are likely to turn up some serious dirt, and it’s “last days of the Roman Empire” time for Graydon Carter’s ‘freewheeling’ Vanity Fair.