Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/litre

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Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/litre

Postby PicturesForYourEars » Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:45 pm

Members of the Canadian Media Guild at three MBS radio stations in Saint John are in a legal strike position as of June 1st.

The employees, which include on-air hosts as well as production and administrative staff at Big John FM, K-100 and CFBC, joined the CMG a year ago.
The Guild has been attempting to negotiate a first collective agreement for eight months.
The parties have been in conciliation since February.
Recently, the management team left the table without explaining the proposals it had given to the conciliator. Management also advised the conciliator they would not attend the third scheduled day of talks this week.

The annual salary scales the company tabled before abandoning the talks start at $22,041, reaching a maximum of $28,542 by the end of 2015. The absurd proposal would amount to a wage rollback of several thousand dollars for existing positions.

The salary offer is offensive considering MBS owner and Nova Scotia lawyer Robert Pace was paid more than $290,000 in 2010 for sitting on a single corporate board, Canadian National Railways. Average annual salary in New Brunswick was more than $39,000 in 2009.

The Guild is advising members to restrict their work to regular duties performed during regular work hours. This does not include non-paid events. The company has a habit of insisting members take part in so-called “station promotional events” including soap box derbies, sandcastle contests, pond hockey, etc., without pay. We are seeking a fair deal, one that provides a measure of job security, realistic wages and some semblance of respect.

We remain prepared to engage in real, good faith bargaining. The Guild committee tabled a comprehensive offer. Unfortunately, the employer was not present to accept it and it will be forwarded by the conciliator. The parties are in a legal strike/lockout position as of June 1.

Facebook information group: www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fairdealformbspeople/



/
...LEFT PLACES I SHOULDA STAYED,
STAYED PLACES I SHOULDA LEFT...
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby Mike Cleaver » Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:40 pm

Wow!
22K a year.
I was making that by 1971.
Radio now officially is a McJob.
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby hagopian » Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:04 am

This is a perfect illustration as to why I tell anyone who will listen - radio has been a McJob for quite a while.

We are talking a basement suite lifestyle - while the sales and management crew vacation at their homes in the sun, and drive Audi's.

It was bad when I started in the business - but it is REALLY getting ridiculous.

SHAME.
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby PicturesForYourEars » Sun Jun 03, 2012 2:00 pm

You are right my friend. Sadly, in the labor dispute in Saint John, the morning man at CFBC has been getting up and reporting for work at the same station FORTY YEARS!!!!!!
(I worked with Donnie-In-The-Morning Robertson there way back in 1975).
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby J Kendrick » Sun Jun 03, 2012 6:21 pm

PicturesForYourEars wrote:The annual salary scales the company tabled before abandoning the talks start at $22,041, reaching a maximum of $28,542 by the end of 2015. The absurd proposal would amount to a wage rollback of several thousand dollars for existing positions.


Let's see now... $22,041 divided by 52 weeks a year is $423.87 a week.

$423.87 a week divided by 40 hours a week is a paltry $10.60 an hour.

... a mere 60 cents over the New Brunswick minimum wage...

Surely, they can't be serious. Some kids make more money than that babysitting...
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sun Jun 03, 2012 6:42 pm

Oh but they are and don't call me Shirley.
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby pave » Sun Jun 03, 2012 6:57 pm

There's an irony in all this, as well. Maybe not tomorrow or the day after, but someday owners and managers will begin to realise their only hope out of their self-inflicted doldrums will be through the application of Talent - real, "live", local and, above all, skilled.

Of course, when they do go to the talent-pool - hooks reluctantly baited with 25,000-dollar paycheques, all they will find are remnants, amateurs and sludge.

It has yet to click with these individuals that communicating to a mass audience effectively is a very sophisticated business and not one to be left to the uneducated, the unskilled and those who, otherwise, would have difficulty in engaging in that many other forms of meaningful work.
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby J Kendrick » Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:00 pm

Ebenezer: Are there no prisons?
First Collector: Plenty of prisons.
Ebenezer: And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?
First Collector: They are. I wish I could say they were not.
Ebenezer: Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course.

Apparently, the attitude of employers has changed very little since those lines were first published....

... a hundred and sixty-nine years ago... in 1843....
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby johnhenryoliver » Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:45 pm

Sadly many in positions of power,
lack intelligence and humanity!
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby CKNF » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:43 am

Mike Cleaver wrote:Wow!
22K a year.
I was making that by 1971.
Radio now officially is a McJob.

Nah...I'm sure McDonald's employees make more than that. ;-)

22k per year...wow. I knew things in the industry were bad, but that's unbelievably low. Especially for a profession that requires specific post-secondary training. I know that it's the east coast but still...
How the hell do you motivate anyone at 22k per year?
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby PicturesForYourEars » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:31 am

I'm thinking what's happening there is maybe the employer wants to see a 72 hour strike vote and then the employer will do a lockout, as I'm understanding that the real issue is the employer is ultimately trying to have all Saint John programming originate from Halifax so this is a bid to close down staffing?
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Re: Employer Wants Salary Rollback To The Days Gas Was .79/l

Postby Tape Splicer » Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:51 pm

When I started at CJVB in 1985, Mr. VB was paying $6.50 per hour to his operators. Through out the 12 years + I was at the station, the shifts were regular part time. As the years went on and the job grew beyond just turning knobs ant monitoring taped playback the wage grew to the point that when I left the station in 1998 I was receiving $16.50 per hour. When I worked long shifts beyond 8 hours I received time and a half. By today's hourly wage in many professions, I agree that the term "Mac Job" does apply. I recall that I was told many times at BCIT that radio was not a job to be in if I wanted to get rich.
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