Lockout Night in Canada

Back to HOCKEY Night in Canada

2005-10-04T16:32:00.000-06:00

i haven't been this happy since i got the "my little pony" dream castle for christmas 1985. seriously- i know lots of people are still angry about this lockout - still angry that people we work for could have done this to us and created a huge crisis in public broadcasting in the meantime. but i'm too happy to be angry anymore. i get to go back to work. that's all that really matters. it will be tough to start from square one - and especially to fill holes left by people who have, well, left! but i'm willing to give it a try. i'm also willing to work harder to make sure that we create a product worth protecting. what i'm not willing to do anymore is abuse my contract. working for free or not taking vacation time when i'm entitled. it's not going to happen. not anymore.
so the mood at the pizza meeting today was light... jovial even. everyone was just so pleased to be back... to be getting a real paycheque again... to have the stress being lifted off their shoulders. it's amazing what that can do - i'm actually so proud of my colleagues for holding it together as well as they did. it's an amazing group of people i work with. but i always knew that.
so today i was just perusing some of the contract details and it looks like there's even something in there for me (a temporary). there was a hint that if you've been filling a position for 18 months consecutively, youc could be entitled to staff status. i'll have to check the fine print, but since i've been doing my job for nearly 3 years, i may finally be able to gain job security. and plan my life. i'm turning 30 soon- i think it's time.
so this will also be my last blog entry. it's been fun. it's been a great way to get out some of my thoughts and keep some people entertained (including myself =)). so without fanfare i say goodbye to "lockout night in canada" to make way for "hockey night in canada". cue theme.

Putting it Out There

2005-09-30T10:46:00.000-06:00

if you don't want to read the serious stuff, i suggest skipping ahead to after the "hmmm".

It's been said, depending on who you talk to, that this lockout has 5-7 emotional stages that mirror those in grief: shock, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression, acceptance. some for the sake of brevity have eliminated some like guilt (as far as i can tell: we've done nothing wrong here - and i'm a catholic, i KNOW guilt when i see it!). well i have to admit, i think i'm stuck in the anger stage. i know a lot of those around me have self-actualized to the point where they're in the acceptance stage, but i can't get there. anger is like the big toll bridge standing in the way of reaching depression or acceptance, and i've run out of change (and i'm not carrying my visa or interac cards either!). and every communique i get from either side just ads fuel to the fire because the rhetoric coming from both sides seems so thick. i'm starting to doubt i will ever have a staff job with the cbc, even when this is resolved. i HAD a staff job once upon a time - but i grew out of it. and when i wanted to take the better job, the job that i have now, i was forced to give up my permanent status. basically, as i explained to my mom this morning, probably the only reason i'm still working is because i've had two managers now that seem to believe in me, and think i'm competent. but the longer this goes on, the longer i'm beginning to doubt that this fight is about making people like me a permanent part of the workforce. i guess i can't afford to start thinking these things now. ironically enough, what i did catch myself thinking this morning was of a potential question line for mayor stephen mandel for the end of the year interview our host does with the mayor (don't worry portia - it's not the "if you could be any kind of vegetable, what would you be?" kind of questions). i guess that sort of tells me that i'm not taking that much of a mental break from work - and i guess this also makes me angry because despite that i'm always "working", i'm somehow not the kind of person the cbc wants as a staff member. hmmm.
ok, enough with the dead seriousness... i just had to get that out there.
this was the first week i didn't have temp work to deal with. it was kind of nice, actually. financially scary, but nice. i went to pack food at the food bank for the first time this week. it was good. i learned that sorting food is much easier when you say what it is out loud, a la scott findlay (right scott?). "tomato sauce, tomato sauce...okaaaaay... ah! here!" i also learned that some people donate the strangest stuff (12 bottles of MINT SAUCE??? a jar of HAGGIS??? no, i'm not even kidding). but most importantly, i learned they need so much help there. i think the small core staff do an admirable job, but i can tell that on a normal day, sorting those bins and packing all those boxes would be a daunting task that really needs more hands. i hope we can continue our work there when and if we get back to work at cbc.
we also had a staff meeting this week with free pizza (thank you pipefitters). i ate too much of it. the meeting was just a general update, but before things got started, we were treated to a rallying cry by glenn freeman, who i haven't seen that excited since ... well... uh ... ever. i'm kidding glenn, but seriously, it was a nice attempt at rallying the troops. we were also, as usual, treated to the comedic stylings of mark connolly.
we also had a rally in the downtown on wednesday. black balloons with the exploding pizza bastardized into a skull and crossbones motif. i think you get the picture.
i also have discovered the joy of the sudoku puzzle. it's frustrating, mind-numbing, fun, and can be such a tease when you're so close to finishing but can't figure out that one freaking number! i know that i'm nowhere near the talents of rod gorda, but i'm trying rod i'm trying! and have i mentioned, it kills 2 hours on the line, easy?
ok so before i go, i must say thanks to: dan mclennan (for continually feeding our caffeine addictions), the pipefitters (damn good pizza), jim macdonald (again for delivering breakfast monday), and all those that stop and say good words on the line or in letters to the editor. it does make a difference.

Event Update

2005-09-19T12:15:00.000-06:00

Event for this week as sent to me by CMG Edmonton:

Hi all,

Here's what you need to know about Wednesday's event:

Our theme is "walking the line for public broadcasting".

Gather all your friends/family/neighbours to come to City Center Mall on Wednesday.

We've invited unions, artists, and other CBC supporters.

The idea is to MAKE A LOT OF NOISE. We want a spectacle.

Regular picketing will be suspended for that day. We want you there from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m - that will count as 4 hours. Please have your guests be there from noon to 1 p.m.

This will be a labour protest not a live show.

PLEASE try to come as we want a big crowd! Wear your signs!

Oh and one more thing...

2005-09-15T12:32:00.000-06:00

just a little note about this blog: i've been noticing a lot of blogs are very smart, full of deep thoughts and some real reporting work on what's going on out there... that's not what my blog is all about. it's about whatever i feel like talking about and whatever's going on that i can remember. unfortunately you won't find too many deep thoughts or plans for saving the cbc here. if that's what you're looking for, try some other blogs. if you'd like to get an overview and some humour, then this may be the place for you.

A Blog in Three Parts

2005-09-15T12:25:00.000-06:00

The main reason I’ve been such a slacker when it comes to this blog is that I’ve pretty much been hauling ass for a week, cramming in working with picketing to eek by a living. So there are going to be a few parts to this entry – first will be a complaint, then a catchup and then some interesting reading/listening.
THE COMPLAINT
So I don’t expect any sympathy from anyone for my situation. Really, I don’t. Sometimes I feel sorry for myself – getting up at 4:30 am to go walk the line for 2 hours only to ride the ass-bus to a job I don’t want to do for 6 hours, where i've just been assigned the challenging task of manually changing prices for 10000 items, then board the smelly bus again to get to the picket line for another 2 hours. Then gym, home, get lunch ready for the next day then bed. But then i think there are people worse off than me. And I’ve made my own financial bed, and I have to lie in it – as in I have to do what I have to do to get by. BUT what I will say is this – I don’t understand how some can actually try and make things MORE difficult for people in my position by putting up unnecessary roadblocks. I’m being intentionally vague here because I don’t want to outright slag anyone. Let me give an example. Let’s take picketing hours- I’m honest about my hours. I’m sure that 99.9% of my coworkers are. But there are extenuating circumstances which dictate the precision of your timeline, IE I got here at 4:05 and not 4 pm because my bus was late or someone has to leave at 5:50 to pick up their kid from soccer. But given what I, and others, have to go through to get there – don’t fucking give us a hard time for putting down 4:00 instead of 4:05. EVERYONE is making an effort to be out there, volunteer, etc. And frankly, life happens – I mean I don’t go through this much scrutiny AT WORK. And please don’t check up on me on the picket line – trust me – I’m out there, I have the bad hair and frostbite to prove it. And if anyone wants to hear about the hoops I had to go through to retrieve my cheque this week – just ask me while I’m walking around the building.
THE CATCHUP
So what HAS been going on at the line this week? Of course, tons of rumors flying around – we’ll be back by Oct 1, management’s in it for the long haul, so-and-so’s leaving, etc etc. frankly, I’m done with that – rumors are rumors and nothing more. There’s no one on earth who knows what the master plan is except the masters, so there’s no point in sickening yourself thinking about it. Although it is comforting to talk about sometimes because then you sort of feel what you’re hearing may not be way out in left field.
There’s a food bank benefit being organized by Glassman et al for the 27th of September. It will be a free concert/show, and I don’t have many more details. Hopefully they’ll start promos soon. Bill Stadel and I were trying to think of some Edmonton big name bands that may draw a crowd – but we couldn’t really come up with any universal mass appeal artists. Corb Lund was about it – but I hear he’s on tour. I think Gary Daelman’s CBC band should play! I don’t know their name, but I’ll tentatively call them “gary and the lockouts”. Gary: Think about it! As an aside, andree found this band called “peter mansbridge and the cbcs” for real. They’re an Ontario group – kind of average music with an above average band name. I’ll link to them later.
What else what else? There was a cmg meeting this week, which I missed, updating everything. Apparently the hilights were as follows, according to my sources: Guy Moquin ran into Brad Pitt working on his movie set, Mark Connolly was poking fun at Ron Wilson in some way, our lockout pay went up, and oh yeah we’re still locked out. Special thanks to the United Nurses of Alberta for providing pizza.
I was put in charge of the coffee card last night and this morning! So much power! But I was a very benevolent coffee card keeper – people should put me in charge more often.
It’s very cold these days on the line – so here’s some advice: no matter what Josh Classen or Kristy Gordon or that new Nicola chicky from global OR ANY weather network “personality” says about the weather, dress WARMLY. And by that I mean full on warm jacket, sweater, scarves and mitts and long underwear if the need be. People are seriously being caught off guard by really how cold it is out there – and it’s not going to get warmer. May I also recommend actually walking on the line – it keeps you warm.
Gareth told me this morning that apparently Mark Harvey’s dog gently bit a homeless man the other day. I think he said it was more like a nip, but enough to make the man stop paying attention to him.
READING/LISTENING
So in the past couple of days I’ve read Robin Rowland’s vision for the CBC and listened to Tod Maffin’s vision for the CBC. Both visions have merit. I agree with Robin’s points about re-investing in local broadcasting wholeheartedly – after all, isn’t that where compelling stories are supposed to come from? If you’re not involved in your community, how can you ever expect to uncover anything? Anyhoo, Tod’s vision is available to listen to from his unplugged website and from that site, you can also link to Robin’s blog The Garrett Tree to read his ideas for the future of the mother corp. And who knows, you may get some ideas of your own, and hopefully, so will management.

Why I Love Paul Workman

2005-09-07T20:10:00.000-06:00

ok, admittedly, there are several reasons. the man is a fantastic journalist and writer - he could make 3 hours of staring blankly at a wall sound interesting. he has a keen eye for letting the picture do the talking and he's not too hard on the eyes either. but today i have even more respect for the man. today i read that he's been placed on leave by the cbc because he refuses to work while we're out. now apparently he's part of that small group of foreign correspondents that CAN work (veeeeeeery clever how they got around that one), but he isn't. and he's not afraid of the consequences. so while i didn't think it was possible, and while it probably doesn't mean too much to him, paul workman has gone up a notch in my book.

What Were They Thinking?

2005-09-06T20:01:00.000-06:00

BILL STADEL - Senior Producer, Canada Now

I'm thinking i'm going to read Christie Blatchford which I don't normally do, but now I have the time.

The Kindness of Strangers

2005-09-06T19:37:00.000-06:00

12 hours. I picketed today for 12 hours. why, you make ask, would anyone participate in this insanity? well i'll be honest: for me, strike pay just isn't going to cut it, and neither would working 40 hours a week for 10 bucks an hour as a receptionist, so i must do both: 20 hours picketing, 20 hours work: maybe then i'll be ok. incidentally, i didn't think i'd find myself in this situation because i didn't think this thing would continue that long. at this point, there's a voice in the back of my head going holy crap lets get this thing over with now! talk, do whatever. i know that some people would call me the weak link for saying so, but frankly those people can f-off because not only do i miss what i do, i admit i miss some of the security it brought. and i know i'm not the only one who feels that way, even though i may be one of the few who admit it.
but i digress. so 12 hours picketing sounds crazy, it actually wasn't all that bad. first of all, there were tons of people throughout the day for various shifts, therefore i was always amused by someone at any given time. i got to spend some quality time with lots of folks, among them, bill stadel who i haven't really talked to since he came back from vacation last week and i was working elsewhere. secondly, i got lots of exercise. LOTS. i didn't feel i even had to go to the gym afterwards. and third: hey, i'm done more than half my picket duty for the week.
today there was a nice delivery of sandwiches from some people. jim mcdonald from BN brought over sandwiches from the italian centre bakery and beverages, generously bought by ann sullivan, who's on mat leave (we miss you ;) and katherine harding from the globe (thanks harding!). he also told us the italian centre folks are giving them a discount on the sandwiches of a buck off each, which is also very generous, so i wanted to say thanks on this site. it just reminds me that people haven't forgotten about us -we're still friends, colleagues and customers!
so tomorrow shelagh rogers rolls into town with her caravan, and we're having another sort of pirate broadcast in the city hall vicinity. thanks again to the folks at cjsr for lending equipment. also there's a morning show broadcast tomorrow AM on cjsr at 7:30am i THINK. don't quote me on that. anyhoo, i hope it all goes well - i'm sure it will.

i just can't stop

2005-09-02T16:12:00.000-06:00

posting that is...
i had to post this as the quote of the day - comes from Conservative MP Steven Fletcher (you know - the MP who in question period asked health minister Ujjal Dosanjh to "step outside"). Anyhoo, he went to visit picketers and brought donuts and wanted to hear their concerns, and had the following to say:

"Fletcher says he usually likes CBC Radio, but "'I listened to it coming here and it's crap.'"

i love it - a simple turn of phrase that embodies the current state of affairs.

woo hoo!

2005-09-02T15:22:00.000-06:00

kay 've gone from sad to hopeful - guild and cbc sign off on 12 articles! it's like a roller coaster of emotions!

The Brown Envelope

2005-09-02T15:01:00.000-06:00

You know what I’m talking about: that very ominous envelope that’s arriving in everyone’s mailbox from CBC inviting us to “get the facts”? Ok it’s white, but I was making a weak attempt at being clever.
(incidentally – when I got the envelope, I started to worry thinking I had either A. been fired or B. was being offered money to cross the line. And I was on the verge of ripping it open in a sweaty panic when Catherine said “stop! don’t do it”. So she told me vaguely what was in it and what I’m supposed to do, but all night it sat in my apartment taunting me and begging to be opened. But I resisted – wish I could say the same for that chocolate bar in my cupboard. Anyhoo, lots of thanks to Tod Maffin for posting on unplugged. I thought I would go crazy with curiosity)
So after reading the contents, I’m actually feeling a little insulted. We’re just being beaten over the head with the same message over and over: “the right people for the right jobs at the right time”. (by the way, I fully expect that to replace “trusted, connected, Canadian” as the CBC’s slogan very soon). Who the HELL wants to live with that over their heads??? I’ve been a TV producer for 2.5 years in Edmonton, and for nearly that long, I’ve lived in constant fear of not having a job at certain points: end of summer, end of fiscal, you name it. My coworkers are tired of hearing me worry about it, my boss I’m sure is tired of hearing me worry about it (because I know she really does want me there and values what I do), and frankly, I’ve stressed myself out to the point of anxiety worrying about it. And to think, I’m in that “young group” that certain people claim don’t want to be stuck in the same jobs with the same company forever. Young people DO want job security. We DO want opportunities to advance in the same company. We DO want benefits (I don’t want to lose my teeth at 40, do you?) and we DO want to invest ourselves in the CBC – that’s WHY WE’RE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
I do love public broadcasting and I want to work for the CBC. When I was in j-school, I found myself in the Toronto broadcast centre for some random thing and I turned to my friend and said “you know, I really want to work for CBC one day.” I was really lucky because that day came really fast. And 5.5 years later, I still think I’m lucky, I know that. But I’m not sure if the CBC knows how lucky it is to have all these talented people working here. And that makes me sad. And those are my facts.

Happy Birthday Alberta

2005-09-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

It’s with regret that I report that Alberta’s CBC stations will NOT be covering the centennial celebrations. With a special broadcast planned with remotes from all over the province, certainly we would have covered all aspects of this once in a lifetime celebration. It’s embarrassing to admit that a station that has almost every historical provincial moment in its archives will NOT have one ounce of footage from the centennial. From now on, whenever we refer to the centennial in our broadcast, we will have NO FREAKIN PICTURES of anything. Maybe I’ll ask Kathy Z to photoshop a picture of Ralph Klein jumping out of a birthday cake to create a still we can use in any centennial – referenced story.
I read an interesting commentary today by former CBC important-guy Jack McAndrew. I posted the link in the appropriate column.

How May I Direct Your Call??

2005-08-31T19:43:00.000-06:00

I've been saying that for three days straight now - it's been the longest three days of my life, mind you. I've taken a temp job as a receptionist - it's out of necessity really. I just couldn't do it on lockout pay alone. Most of my day is spent directing other's calls and shipping packages. SHIPPING THOSE BLOODY PACKAGES. I swear I don't care if I ever see another waybill as long as I live. And THE BEST was that I was trained by the permanent receptionist on friday for a couple of hours and I distinctly remember her saying "oh don't worry about shipping internationally - that won't happen." ok, i'd say 95% of the shit i've shipped in the last 3 days has been international! and the US has some tight rules on shipping ANYTHING to their little country. yay homeland security!
anyway, the larger picture here is that i've realized i'm really qualified to do what i do and completely underqualified for anything else. seriously. i feel like such a dumbass sometimes where i'm working now - and a lot of people there i'm sure assume all i do is temp. that's pretty humbling too. someone there said to me the other day "gee i don't know how you temps do it- going from job to job!". yes- i'm fulfillling my lifelong dream right now... will you please take a picture of me and send it to my mom? ha!
kay enough bitching - at least i'm sortof working right now.
today we staged an event in front of city hall - an hour long broadcast of what we'd do if we weren't locked out. it was great - a real spirit booster, i thought. kudos to glassman and the crew that organized and took part in it - ron, portia, kim, olivier, peter, mark c, mark h, the tech crew, terry jones, ginette benoit, maria dunn - and i know there's lots i'm missing, so, sorry. it was also great to see politicians take part. you know, i never understand why some people shy away from participating in something like this. it's all in good fun. those that do participate make me happy because you have hope that they get it. they get that the cbc isn't about the institution, it's about all the people that work there to make it, well, work! i think the group that staged cbc unlocked showed that today.
read more about it soon on edmontoncbc or cbcontheline.
my last thought: while this lockout is making some headway in the spirit-breaking department, it's beginning to do what i feared most: breaking up our small edmonton-cbc family. people are starting to think about moving on - and some already have. people that know me and are reading this will think i'm being over-dramatic, but i came to edmonton knowing virtually no one, having no family here, and some of my co-workers have become my close friends and surrogate family. i LIKE going to work every day - and some of that has to do with those i work with. not everyone can say that. but i know people (even me) could move on when we were working, i just think this lockout may be expediting the process.

Fringe A No-No

2005-08-27T13:19:00.000-06:00

Kay i have to give christine chomiak credit for that catchy title! i also have to give her heaps of credit for getting hosts of shows on cjsr to donate time to our locked out cbc show. she says the response was positive and plenty of hosts volunteered to give us 30 mins of air time. so it looks like we might get our radio show after all! will keep posted.
also we now have a local CMG edmonton site: cbcedmonton.ca (link to your left), not to be confused with our old news website edmonton.cbc.ca! too funny.
i'd just like to say before i continue recapping the past days events that we've done a pretty good job of keeping the lockout in the public conciousness. even on a saturday - today i opened the edmonton journal and found three letters to the editor on the lockout: all supportive and one by our very own kim trynacity. now what i enjoyed about reading her letter was it serves as a reminder (especially to albertans) that people should really expect more from their public broadcaster, including in our regional coverage when we're back on the air. "does the cbc need a shakeup? absolutely. too much power is concentrated on too few desks in toronto." good point - and worth letting people hear about.
anyhoo, back to picketing adventures. thursday was a gorgeous day - seemed like a great day for information picketing at the fringe festival, fringe a go-go. we knew the rules: stay outside the main area, if you go in (to use the washroom, etc), roll up your sign. if someone asked you for a postcard to sign while you were on the grounds, we didn't think anything of giving people one. and we were going to meet in the beer tent at 4pm, where radio active would have normally been. so, andree, christine, ron wilson and i spent the majority of our afternoon in an area that was fenced in that normally serves as a road, but was seemingly outside the fringe boundary. we were there 1.5 hours with not so much as a peep from anyone from the festival. at about 4, we rolled up our signs and ventured inside to see if people were at the beer tent. although we didn't see anyone, we ran into a cameraman from another station and larry mcdonald outside the beer tent boundary. we all stopped to chat, the cameraman asked to see one of our cards, then gave it back to us. we said bye, turned to leave and were jumped on by this fringe beer tent volunteer and the fracas insued:
Fringe:"you can't hand those out here! i saw you!".
Andree: "but that guy's our friend and he just wanted to see one. "
F: "well you can go meet your friends off site and give them out there!"
Christine: "but he didn't even keep it"
F: "look, this is really difficult for us and next year we hope to have you back as sponsors"
Me: "yeah this is really difficult for US too" (thinking YOU try being locked out by your employer and treated like you have a highly contageous disease by a volunteer with a god complex).
we leave.
but it doesn't end there: about 10 minutes to the end of our shift, christine and i are in the place we were before (and for most of the day), when out of the corner of my eye i see burly security guard type volunteer approaching (we'll call him Burly Security, or BS for short)
BS: can i have your business cards please?
Me: no.
BS: i need your names then.
Me: no you don't. (i wasn't born yesterday)
BS: well i need you to leave then - you're on our property and you've been told not to be here.
Me: (feeling argumentative, tired, and cranky by this point) how come we've been here all day and no one's said anything? in fact other fringe people have watched us stand here for more than 2 hours!
BS: well maybe they didn't know! look don't argue with me , just get off (starts cornering us)
Me: i'm not arguing, i'm just ASKING
we leave. BS watches us go. BS feels good about himself about bullying two girls.
christine and i head to the corner of whyte and cgy.trail. along the way we're stopped by two people who really want to sign our cards, and say how ridiculously we're being treated given how much publicity we've given the fringe in the past (thank you)- we give them two to sign. out of the corner of MY eye, BS approaches. but they finish signing and we move further to the corner to wait for the traffic light.
BS does a drive by.
while waiting for the light, we're stopped by a guy who wants to know a bit more about the situation, and tells us he doesn't like unions, and argues a bit with us (friendly though). again, i see BS approaching. by this time we've stopped talking to the guy and are just waiting for the next light to cross.
BS: i told you to leave!
Me: we're just waiting for the bloody light to change!!!! To Christine: you know we should run out into traffic, cause an accident and then blame it on him!
we cross, go to the black dog for a beer and to cool down.
BS thinks all he's learned at security guard school has now paid off.
fin

ok so whether you agree with us getting kicked off or not, i think overall the way we've been treated by them is awful. while i might be a bit biased, at no point were we ever A.disturbing the peace, or B. disrespectful to the fringe patrons. very frustrating.

so on tap for this week: a lunchtime rally/concert on wednesday in front of city hall or in the library depending on the weather. 12 -2 pm i believe.
the blog may be a little less frequent because i'm gainfully employed this week as an administrative assistant. it's just for this week, but holy crap does it ever feel weird taking on this work. not that i don't think it's important or good work, but it's not doing what i love to do, or what i'm trained to do, with the coworkers i'm so fond of. but you gotta do what you gotta do.

What Were They Thinking??

2005-08-26T14:00:00.000-06:00

This is my new feature whereby i ask cbc edmonton employees what they're thinking this very moment on the picket line... i could ask at any time!

LYLE COTT: VJ - English TV News
"How sore my shoulder is."

OLIVIER DURIVAGE: Host- Telejournal
"The first thought that came to my mind was 'shut up' and i don't know why! i didn't mean to be rude!"

Support Your Local Sports Guy!

2005-08-25T11:23:00.000-06:00

This is Mark Connolly and Dan Riendeau handing out support cards Saturday at Commonwealth. You may recognize Mark from such olympics as Athens, Salt Lake, Sydney, etc etc. He also files for CNow Edmonton daily. Dan's a radio producer here, in the middle of his contract when we were locked out.

It's SUNNY!

2005-08-25T10:55:00.000-06:00

sorry - i couldn't think of a more clever title. the prospect of picketing in the sun has given me a renewed energy! yee haw!
like many other locked out cbc-ers, the edmonton crew was trying to get a 30 minute radio show with our university station CJSR. unbelievably, we've been rejected. mark harvey says the program director there couldn't find us a spare 30 minutes on their airwaves! i find this outrageous, really. calgary has successfully got 30 minutes, and i've heard the vancouver crew has got stations all over BC carrying their stuff, but we can't get a lousy 30 minutes a week??? it's especially insulting since i'm told the program director there is often a contributor to various edmonton cbc radio programs.
well, we are not to be deterred - or rather christine chomiak isn't about to be deterred! i think her plans are to e-mail the cjsr program hosts and ask if they'd like to donate 30 minutes of their show to our cause. i admire her chutzpah, but it's a shame it's come to this.
speaking of shames, apparently the fringe festival is less than thrilled with our picketing presence near their area. i know we've kept a very respectful distance, but that doesn't seem to matter. if i were in a negative mood, i'd say it seems like OH MY GOD THE WORLD'S AGAINST US! but i know that's just not true, from the volume of support we've received from people and passersby and certain politicians like ndp mla raj pannu and other labour organizations. so if non-cbc people are reading this, and you pass by one of our picket lines, it really can't hurt to offer words of encouragement - it really does keep spirits up. i even don't mind the half-supportive comments, like the one i got via e-mail from my friend sue: "while i'm kind of glad for the lockout because there's lots of coronation street - if you're not happy i'm not happy." thanks sue - it means a lot! really!
so i've been reading cbc on the line (link to your left), and read with particular interest the row with stursberg and david shannon. i think it just speaks to how pissed off lots of people are - some of it's bound to boil over. i can't help but feel that current management is killing the cbc with every day we're locked out. and how when and if we ever get back to work, we're the ones that are going to have to bust our collective asses to fix things with our local viewers and audiences. that's just wrong.
hey, if you're reading this and you live in edmonton, go see "hip hop 4 dummeez" and "gags for the masses" at the fringe (while i'm still mad at the fringe organizers, i can't take it out on the artists that come here). anyway -two hilarious shows. "gags" is also very thought provoking.

Rain, Rain, Go the F&*% Away!!

2005-08-24T13:10:00.000-06:00

it's raining. again. seriously. i'm beginning to think we've either A. been cursed, B. did something really bad in a previous life or C. mysteriously keep waking up in vancouver. i remember my first summer in edmonton, i think it rained twice in 100 days. so i'm on my way to hit the picket line one more time in the rain.
yesterday we did some picketing at the fringe festival - this is a place where one of the radio shows has it's own beer tent and now we have no presence, except on the outside. but once again, it's a cbc-friendlier crowd, so there were lots of enthusiastic card signers.
andree lau and i have both noticed in reading some other blogs that certain picket lines seem very entertaining. ottawa for example has musical interludes! it's really great to see that people across the country are making the best of it. yesterday prior to hitting the fringe, we did the usual rounds downtown. alberta beef producers were doing bbq beef on a bun, so some of our troupe took advantage of the free lunch -- them and half the city. since i don't eat the beef, i hung back until churchill square was clearing out. barb boyechko and i did a tour with our signs around the square and noticed there was another free aspect to the bbq: FREE BEER! some edmonton MLAs were handing out beer samples, and being quite, um, generous with their sample sizes. it's no concert or street hockey game, but a fun moment to break up the day!
i'm putting some new links up to new sites, including terry reith's picture site.

Honk Please!

2005-08-22T22:32:00.000-06:00

CBC Edmonton staff await the Prime Minister's arrival - and solicit honks of support from oncoming truckers!
photo courtesy andree lau.

Picketing Paul

2005-08-22T21:14:00.000-06:00

First - the first manager-run CFL game and now this: Paul Martin had a fundraising bbq here today. keeps picketing interesting - let me tell you!
but not to get too far ahead: on saturday we hit the eskimos - argos game to hand out postcards people can sign and mail to pm the pm supporting cbc employees. sounds simple, but in a province where our premier has an open disdain for the cbc, and has expressed it numerous times, i knew there may be some that are less than friendly to our cause. not surprisingly i was right. it wasn't easy as it sounds getting people to sign those darn things, but we did. of course, we got the usual smattering of negativity: "get back to work" (uh - can't... we're locked out), "i don't support strikers" (uh - again... LOCKED OUT), "i don't want any" (?), and the usual people who just don't like the cbc. but on the other end of it, there was lots of support: union people, people who miss radio and tv, and people who love the cbc. that made it worthwhile. also, one of the edmonton journal columnists, scott mckeen was there to get material for today's column. (it's good by the way - i'd post a link, but you gotta pay to get it). anyhoo, other than gathering the signatures, things were pretty quiet. portia (our cnow host) , zooboy (our "do everything" guy) and i were approached by security to leave the area as we were were trying to get around the stadium. yes, we were just trying to get around. no picketing, no handing out anything... once security realized this, he was willing to let us pass, but it was a bit humbling to say the least.

that brings us to today - and the PM's BBQ.
-as an aside: we sure are getting a wide variety of picket locations in - and later this week, we're hitting edmonton's fringe festival - a typically cbc friendly crowd.

before the bbq, our two intrepid legislative reporters, kim trynacity and john archer hit up martin's press conference. kim got to ask the first question (carried live on newsnet): comments on the cbc lockout please!? according to kim, pm says he's a fan, but that he's not going to intervene in the labour dispute. great.
so at the bbq, we found ourselves sharing picket space with several other labour-challenged groups: telus workers (they say they're locked out, telus says they're on strike - we share the downtown picket corridor with them currently), federal corrections employees (still not sure if they were there in sympathy for telus or if they had their own issues), two people from the nurses union, i think i saw a postal workers sign, and two people carrying placards pushing for alberta seperation (???). it seemed like a complete gong show at times! the other groups had megaphones and whistles and by the end of it, i had a screaming headache and a burning desire to rip my own eardrums out.
by the time martin showed up, there was the usual media circus and then the crowd got a bit ugly. well, maybe not ugly, but slightly unattractive. when the gates to the parking lot closed, this wave of people pushed towards them-- most of us cbc-ers shimmied to one side and continued to chant for a while, but i think thanks to the great previous work done by kim and john, we felt heard. we also had one of martin's aids present him with two full baskets of signed postcards from the game.
the telus people were still chanting when i left. one of them was screaming "oh sure, you'll talk to cbc, but not us!!" so much for solidarity.

if there's one thing i'm learning in all this (besides that whistles are EVIL), it's that my coworkers rock. i knew this before, but it's been solidified - for the most part they are the heartiest bunch of people, making the best of this situation. makes this a whole lot easier to do.

Commonwealth Thursday

2005-08-21T16:42:00.000-06:00

Here's Archer, Catherine, Minner and Scott all ready to take on the trucks outside Commonwealth stadium. Unfortunately no trucks ever showed, but we were prepared. Picture courtesy Andree.

2005-08-21T16:12:00.000-06:00

Here's Andree, me and Catherine looking almost too happy on day 2 of the lockout. Yes, Andree IS wearing gloves because it was THAT COLD. If you could see my hands, you'd see that I was wearing mittens too - and somewhere in my backback, there was a toque.

Sunny Sunday

2005-08-21T16:02:00.000-06:00

of course it's sunny today. it's the weekend and there's no picketing. since i just started this blog-thing, here's a little catch up: cbc edmonton employees have proved to be a hardcore bunch. for the first 4 days of the lockout it was cold and rainy here. i swear there were days when the rain didn't stop. we're in the unique position of being downtown edmonton, located in a mall, and in the hub of a major bus-stop location. so we walked around the entire block - making sure that people catching the bus on either side of the building saw us. every so often, we'd stand under this sheltered area to get a break from the rain. several times, we were told to leave by mall management - several ironies there, including how much money we've pumped into that mall since our tenancy began.
so day one and two were mall-based days for the most part. on tuesday, i celebrated my 29th birthday on the line. larry, one of our cameramen, was very sweet and brought me a muffin with a candle in it and people sang happy birthday. it was actually very funny and strangely moving. wednesday we were told that we'd be moving a picket line to commonwealth stadium. the cbc was setting up for it's first national broadcast: an eskimos - argos game. we'd also heard they may have hired american crews to come up and help, so we set up around the clock lines at the stadium. in the rain. still.
a bunch of us volunteered to go - frankly, the change of scenery was nice. andree and i were hoping we'd get to stop some teamsters' trucks on the way in. although no trucks ever came, i was glad we were there and had our bases covered. there were management-types already there, hanging around the winnipeg mobile that had been brought in to do the job (apparently no one knows how to work the edmonton mobile). on thursday, we returned to commonwealth to see that there had been a FENCE built around the mobile. really. now i don't know if this is standard practice, but i'm told not by several sources.