As it prepares for licence renewal, Radio Nord says employees refuse to negotiate

Radio Nord Communications inc. management charges that its striking employees in northern Quebec won’t return to the bargaining table because many are making more money while on strike than on the job. The allegations were leveled by Radio Nord head Pierre Brosseau as the broadcaster prepares to appear before the CRTC on February 16 for the licence renewals of CKRN-TV Rouyn, the Radio-Canada affiliate station it operates; TVA affiliate CFEM-TV Rouyn; and TQS affiliate CFVS-TV, located in Val d’Or with a retransmitter in Rouyn (CCR Update, Jan. 7/04). Radio Nord’s stations in Gatineau, which are not on strike, are also up for licence renewal. "We think that one of the main reasons that this thing is going on for so long…is that 75% of the strikers are earning the same or more on strike as they would if they were working," Brosseau, the president and CEO of Radio Nord, tells Canadian Communications Reports. "Our people are getting $450 net a week on strike - and that’s not taxable. So it enables them to include time in their strategy, because that is the only strategy that we’ve seen up to now. We’ve been chasing them for the past two years." The employees unionized under the Syndicat des employé(e) en communication de l’Abitibi-Témiscaminque (SECAT) are affiliated with both the Fédération nationale des communications (FNC) and the Conféderation des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN), each of which Brosseau says pays them $200 a week while an additional $50 comes from the local union. A lack of incentive for workers to want to return to the job is management’s response to contentions by the union that Radio Nord management doesn’t want to resolve the labour dispute because it is saving money by not having to produce local news during the strike (CCR, Oct. 31/03). The workers have been on strike for 14 months, and Brosseau contends the union is holding off negotiations until it can have its say at the licence renewal hearings. "The next thing we hear is that they have no interest in sitting down to negotiate because they are waiting for the (CRTC) hearing and the renewal of our licences in February, which is over a month from now," he notes. But the Radio Nord president and CEO sees no direct relationship between the labour dispute and the licence renewals. "We made some indirect references to it (in the licence renewals). But there is no direct relationship between the labour dispute and the renewal of the licences, and except for the period when we were on strike four years ago, we are of the opinion that we are respecting our obligations regarding our conditions of licence (on the production of local news)," he notes. Brosseau says that he has not asked to lower the amount of local news that will appear on the three networks. Over the next seven-year licence term, Radio Nord indicates in its licence renewal applications that it will spend $7.05 million on Canadian programming for CFVS-TV, $2.98 million for CKRN-TV and $2.29 million for CFEM-TV. In interrogatories, Radio Nord says the majority of that would be spent on the production of local news for the three stations. Radio Nord tells the CRTC that CFVS has increased its TV market share in the region by about 20% since 1998, but that specialty channels cut into the channel’s performance between 2000 and 2003. It further points out that CFVS has produced the required one hour and 15 minutes per week of local news, except in 1998-99 when an 11-week strike resulted in the loss of eight hours of news bringing the average for the quarter down to 1 hour and 13 minutes. In its licence renewal application for its Radio-Canada affiliate station, under the heading "CKRN’s strategy for the next licence term," Radio Nord states, "Despite the difficult economic situation in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the fragility of the station, CKRN wants to maintain its current level of (local) production." In its CFEM licence renewal application, Radio Nord tells the CRTC that the strike is affecting viewership. CFEM started a noon news bulletin show in 2001 that helped increase viewership, but the absence of that show since October 2002 because of the strike has resulted in an almost 27% decrease in audience numbers. CFEM’s suppertime newscast, which was seriously affected by satellite TV penetration in 1999 and 2000, had recaptured its position in 2001 (+9.5%), but the strike has since caused a decline of 8.8%, Radio Nord states. It also notes in its application that while revenues at CFEM grew 8.8% between 1998 and 2002, operating expenses rose 33%, including a 45% jump in programming costs. With the union refusing to come to the table, Brosseau says Radio Nord is hoping that the mediator put on the case will become more active in helping resolve the labour dispute. Radio Nord contends that its workers’ demands for pay raises of 32% over five years are unrealistic. "We are prepared to offer our employees better conditions than those found in similar markets," said Radio Nord general manager Ghislain Beaulieu. "For the same type of work, our employees are the best remunerated." In a January 5 media release, Radio Nord noted that it was founded in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and that it intends to stay in the area to develop its services for the local population. The broadcaster noted that since 1998, it had invested $2 million in modernizing its equipment and upgrading its infrastructure in Abitibi. Another problem that Radio Nord faces, according to Brosseau, is that the salaries of its radio employees in northern Quebec are on the same scale as those of its TV reporters (CCR, Nov. 14/03). And with Radio Nord eyeing radio as its means of expansion, that has to change, he notes. "We have the same collective agreement for radio and for television. We’re paying our people in radio prices for television, which is a completely unique situation. Nobody else does that, and it doesn’t make sense because we’re not profitable in radio," he states. "But we got a few new licences - one in Gatineau two years ago and one in Montreal last year - and we’re looking at buying other stations in other regions of Quebec. Radio is where our expansion is. So we are restructuring our radio operations. Before we had radio as an accessory to our television operations, but now we want this radio division to operate in the conventional way and do things like they do things everywhere else."

As it prepares for licence renewal, Radio Nord says employees refuse to negotiate

News | 01/15/2004 5:00 am EST

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