QUEBEC CITY – "Global couldn’t care less about Québec City!" shouts a release today filed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The union has filed a complaint with the CRTC over the broadcaster’s ongoing plan to consolidate its master control in Toronto, which was reported by www.cartt.ca on July 19th.
Like other broadcasters, Global is saving money by using the latest technology to have its master control in a few major centres, rather than have duplicates all over the place.
“We’re just doing what CTV and CBC and the French networks did ages ago,” CKMI station manager Karen MacDonald told www.cartt.ca in July.
Of course, to the union, it’s never cut and dried. “Global got in through the back door by convincing everyone that it would open a station in Québec City. Of about forty employees promised for Quebec, no more than eight will remain!" exclaims Michel Bibeault, co-ordinator of the communications sector of CUPE, in the press release.
"I am truly outraged that Global can make commitments to the CRTC, which are recorded in writing, and then behave as if nothing of the kind had ever existed. It is rather cavalier, to say the least!"
When applying for the license, says the union, CanWest Global committed to making CKMI its main base in Quebec. At the time, they promised to hire 75 people as soon as the station opened, the majority of whom would be located in Québec City.
Global even promised 100 employees by the second year, including several additional positions in Québec City, says CUPE.
"Our commitment, on an employment level, is to create, as of Year One, approximately 75 new jobs, of which the majority are in Québec City. In Year Two, that grows to 100, with additional employment created in Québec City," CUPE quotes Glenn O’ Farrell (currently president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters), then a senior executive at CanWest Global, saying at the hearings in Montreal in December of 1996. It’s on page 1147 of the CRTC verbatim notes, says the union release.
“After the transfer of production to Toronto, slated for around September 26, Global will only have eight full-time employees and one part-time employee at CKMI in Québec City – far short of the target,” says the union.
"Anyone who has followed the file can see that Global couldn’t care less about the promises it made to the people of Québec City. Now that it has the market for the entire province, it’s taking off to Toronto with the petty cash. Once again, Québec City has been had," concludes Mario Gervais, president of the CUPE-Québec, and a citizen of Québec City.
In the province of Quebec, Global operates in Montreal, Québec City and Sherbrooke, with a total of about 125 employees, a hundred of whom are in Montreal. Every Global employee in Quebec is a member of CUPE.
