So, the CBC is coming into its third week of locking out its employees. THREE WEEKS, PEOPLE! The most contentious issue surrounding the labour dispute: employment status. I must admit that I’m not an avid watcher of CBC television, though the PVR has been set for Sunday nights to catch the Doctor Who re-runs all summer. For me, it’s radio – and quite dismal radio as of late.
Longtime “freelancers” that continually contribute to the fine radio programming which sets it far apart from the (cue deep, party-dude voice) rawk and/or so-called-alternative-mainstream radio or (cue Liza Gibbons) fluffy, dentist-office/office place radio haven’t much hope in sight of being granted permanent employment status, nor the fringe benefits that employees have access to. God knows what type of security newer, so-called “employees” have or will get.
For more information on the current situation, along with news, views, opinions and blog links, be sure to visit CBC On the Line regularly. For a poignant account of living from contract to contract be sure to read My Life as a CBC Freelancer by Philly Markowitz, host of Radio Two’s Roots and Wings, and then go tell your MPs, Heritage Minister and the Corporation’s Board of Directors just how annoyed you are.
Oh, and don’t forget to honk your horn as you drive by the picket lines. It’s gratifying for those on the line.