September 12th -- Day of Action for Locked Out CBC Journalists and Staff
On September 12th we will be holding a day of concerted action by IFJ unions to support the struggle of more than 5,5000 trades unionist who have been locked out by the Canadian public broadcaster CBC in a dispute over a new contract and the employment rights at the network.
On that day we plan a series of co-ordinated actions at key centres where CBC have editorial units -- in particular, Jerusalem, Washington, London, Brussels, Moscow and Tokyo. We are also hoping to have specific protests organised in other leading centres including Seoul, Berlin, Paris and Sydney. However, we hope that all our affiliates will on that day send messages of support to the CBC workforce and letters of protest to Canadian embassies and diplomatic representations.
This dispute is of enormous importance because it concerns the responsibility of a public broadcaster to provide decent terms and employment conditions and also deals with the question of so-called flexible employment arrangements and the hiring of short-term contract and freelance staff at the expense of fully employed workers.
Please note this day in your diary NOW. We will be in contact in the next few days with further details of what you can do and with draft letters for you to send. Details of the dispute are available on http://www.cmg.ca/ and the latest on negotiations can be found at http://cmg.ca/cbcbranchnegsupdates.asp.
