Source : Canadian Communications Reports

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) is worried that a new pro-public broadcasting advocacy organization officially launched last week is a pawn in an ongoing battle with another union representing a different segment of Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) employees. The new organization, called Our Public Airwaves, is being financially supported by the Canadian Media Guild, which is affiliated with the U.S.-based union Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Former CBC employee Arthur Lewis has been hired in the paid position of executive director of Our Public Airwaves, which went live with its web site on January 23 (www.publicairwaves.ca) and whose stated mission is to revitalize public broadcasting in Canada. Along with the Canadian Media Guild, Our Public Airwaves also has the support of teachers' unions in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as the Canadian Teachers' Federation, Democracy Watch and the Canadian Federation of Students, according to the executive director.

Our Public Airwaves is also soliciting $25 donations from members of the public interested in joining it. Lise Lareau, president of the Media Guild, tells Canadian Communications Reports that the union has set aside $75,000 for pro-public broadcasting advocacy work, and that the majority of that money would go toward Our Public Airwaves.

But Peter Murdoch, vice president of media for the CEP, remains suspicious of the organization. The Media Guild and the CBC have filed a joint application to the Canada Industrial Relations Board to merge the two unions into one, and to separately merge the two French unions representing workers in Quebec and Moncton.

The industrial relations board has been sitting on the application for more than a year, but Murdoch says that if the application is approved, members of each union will be asked to vote on the merger. He believes that Our Public Airwaves will be used as a communications tool in the battle to win unionized CBC workers to vote for a merger under the Canadian Media Guild rather than under CEP. CBC management will not comment on the proposed merger until the industrial relations board has rendered a decision.

"If (the two unions) were to merge, it is almost certain that there would be a vote between the unions. And my concern is that Our Public Airwaves is more or less a kind of campaign marketing tool in the interests of the CWA," Murdoch tells CCR. "Now, I'm not suggesting that the Guild is not deeply concerned about Canadian broadcasting, as we are. But starting up something now is a bit of a concern."

About 1,800 CBC technical employees belong to the CEP, and about 3,600 other CBC employees, mainly on-air personnel and people involved in the production of programs, belong to the Media Guild. The CEP is a broad-based Canadian union of 150,000 workers, including 20,000 media workers, some working at newspapers and private broadcasters as well as the CBC. The Media Guild also represents workers at TVOntario and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

"We decided that we preferred a Canadian home," Murdoch says. "We saw no reason to be represented by an American-based union, particularly when they were representing workers in the Canadian media. The Media Guild has stayed in the American union. It's the only situation in the world where workers at a national public broadcaster are represented by a union in another country – a Washington-based union. They have us about two-to-one in numbers. So we oppose this vote. The technicians at the CBC feel that they've made a choice to belong to a Canadian union, and they don't want to be forced into an American union."

But Lareau says the idea of Our Public Airwaves is simply to educate more Canadians about the importance of public broadcasting. She adds that it would be great if the CEP contributed to Our Public Airwaves efforts, but notes that is unlikely given the current tensions between the unions.

"We've asked (the CEP) to come on board, but so far they haven't," she says. "At the moment, the two unions are probably going to be engaged in an internal (struggle)…It makes co-operation a little difficult right now as much as we would like to (work together). It would be great if they would get on board but OPA (Our Public Airwaves) will go on no matter what."

Lareau doesn't feel that it's the wrong time to launch Our Public Airwaves, given the tensions between the unions. "We know that we want to expand this base far beyond the folks that work at the public broadcasters…In many ways we're hoping to reach beyond employee unions. A lot more people are affected by public broadcasting than they even know. I believe that sports groups, arts groups and business groups have a lot to gain through a healthy public broadcaster, but no one has helped them understand how vital this issue is."

Lareau adds that Our Public Airwaves is about countering a massive private television sector lobby. "Many of our members are the programmers and they are the brains behind these organizations (CBC, TVOntario and APTN)…I think that we need to bring back the balance between the public and private sectors," she says. "It's not balanced now. Once upon a time, it was totally skewed toward public broadcasting in the early days of television. That pendulum has swung totally the other way to the private broadcasters."

She says Our Public Airwaves grew out of a conference, entitled Finding Focus: Public Broadcasting in a Private Era, that was held in Ottawa two years ago. A founding meeting was held last April.

Lewis says the Media Guild was reluctant to get involved in Our Public Airwaves. "Nothing was happening, and then finally the Guild, which was reluctant to get involved because it would be seen as self-serving, put up some seed money to try (and develop the organization)," he states.

But Murdoch notes that the unions and other organizations, such as Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, have been advocating for public broadcasting for years. He questions the need for an apparent duplicate organization such as Our Public Airwaves.

"I think lobbying for public broadcasting is something that we have been doing for years, as have a lot of other people – certainly the most prominent operating at arm's length is Friends of Canadian Broadcasting," Murdoch notes. "I'm concerned about what the motivations are (for Our Public Airwaves)."

He adds, "I don't deny that the CWA is interested in public broadcasting. I know they do a lot of things with PBS in the States. Fine. But I just find it far too coincidental that this (Our Public Airwaves) happens when it does. It may have grown out of a conference two years ago, but they (Media Guild) would have already been into the heat of this battle with us. This legal battle has been going on for three years."

Both Lareau and Lewis state that Our Public Airwaves will be distinct from Friends, and the more advocates there are for public broadcasting the better.

"I think thus far with Friends and others, they have done a good job for advocating for Canadian broadcasting, but Canadian isn't everything," Lareau notes. "Canadian can serve advertising interests too; our job is to say, this is ours – this is the public's airwaves. That's a different concept entirely. In some ways I think we'll overlap (with Friends) and that's fine. I don't think an issue needs to be articulated by just one group all the time, because you can be dismissed pretty fast that way too. I think we'll overlap and we'll be much more fine-tuned in other ways."

Lewis adds, "We think that we are complementary to Friends. We have a very distinct mission. We are here to pro-actively advocate for stronger public broadcasting."

He draws an analogy with the numerous Third World support agencies, all of which have carved out their own particular niche in helping non-industrialized countries. "I mean would you call up anyone of them – CARE, for example – and say why do we need you when we have got Canadian University Services Overseas, and we've got CIDA, or any number of other organizations?"

Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends, isn't opposed to another pro-CBC organization, although he is concerned about accountability. "We think that public broadcasting needs all the friends it can get, and therefore, Our Public Airwaves is to be welcomed," he notes. "But we consider it important for citizens' organizations to be transparent if they are going to raise money from the public. Is (Our Public Airwaves) a charity? Is it incorporated? Is there a board?"

Lewis says the organization is in the process of developing a board and governance structure. "We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and we're in the very preliminary stage. We got as far as we could go without operating in the public eye, and are moving on from there," he says.

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Related Links

Articles
Globe & Mail - Feb. 18, 2003
Globe & Mail - Sept. 24, 2003
Canadian Communications Reports #2
Washington Times

Communications Workers of America
Oct 2002 press release (pdf 112KB)

Our Public Airwaves publications
(Mar 2002 (pdf 235KB) | Apr 2002 (pdf 113KB) | Jun 2002 (pdf 64KB))