Tentative first contract
with
multi-faith
broadcaster 2 years in making
Canadian
Media Guild | CWA Canada
Local 30213
It's taken almost two years to hammer
out, but a first collective agreement is within the
grasp of unionized employees at S•VOX.
The bargaining committee announced
Tuesday that it had reached agreement in principle
on a three-year contract that delivers salary increases
of 6.0 per cent in the first year and 3.0 per cent
in the following two years. In addition, S•VOX
will make RRSP contributions each year of up to 6.0
per cent of salary of the approximately 40 members
in the bargaining unit.
The union and management will
re-evaluate all job classifications in the production,
programming, finance & administration
and marketing & communications departments over
the next three years to ensure that salaries are realistic
and reflect the value of work being performed, the
bargaining committee says.
The tentative agreement, which
will be put to a ratification vote later this month,
also contains improvements to vacations, personal
absence or "floating" days,
and clearer rules regarding posting of job vacancies,
hiring and scheduling.
The Canadian Media Guild bargaining
unit at S•VOX
was certified in January 2005. Negotiations to reach
a first collective agreement began in July 2005.
Founded in 1988 as VisionTV,
S•VOX is Canada’s
national multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster.
In addition to paid programming produced by Christian
evangelical and other faith groups, the basic cable
service presents documentaries, dramas, family programs
and movies that focus on spirituality and related moral
issues. S•VOX also has a small in-house production
unit that creates current affairs programming.
In 2001, S•VOX launched a companion service,
the diginet One: the Body, Mind & Spirit channel,
which presents programming on health and wellness,
holistic living and paranormal phenomena. A second
digital service, The Christian Channel, was launched
in 2005.
(This is an edited compilation of various articles
posted on the Canadian
Media Guild website.)
