• Aug 17, 2005

    Picketing: Day 1 for Dan

    I just got home after my first shift picketing outside CBC Windsor.

    I arrived at the lunch hour, and though spirits seemed lifted by the barbecue lunch, it was clear that many of my colleagues were dead tired. To collect strike pay, CMG members must picket 20 hours per week, and for some, this was their third day in a row spent outside in the hot Windsor sun. I chose to pile my 20 hours at the end of the week, so I picketed 4 hours today, and will picket for 8 hours each tomorrow and Friday.

    Windsor is an interesting city for job action. It is Canada’s automotive capitol, and the CAW is omnipresent in daily life for many. It’s a union city, and the support I saw today certainly confirmed that. Along Riverside Drive, we got many honks and waves from drivers-by, which was nice. Also, some kind folks dropped by to chat, and brought with them water and fresh fruit.

    The act of picketing itself is mind-numbing. You walk from one edge of of the property to another, then back again, then repeat. No matter who you talk to, the topic of discussion always seems to be the lockout.

    Looking on the bright side of things, though, today I learned how to play petanque.



  • Aug 17, 2005

    Apply now!

    It’s nice to know that the CBC continues to post job openings.

    I applied for a campus/community radio job at CHRY earlier this week.

    Alternatively, if you’re looking for work (media or otherwise), here are a few more sites to check out, courtesy of Liz “Please See Attached” Gesicki:



  • Aug 17, 2005

    Ottawa Sun Editorial

    And, via the aforementioned cbcwatch, a CBC lockout editorial from the Ottawa Sun called When nobody looks.

    Though it might be easy to shrug it off and say, “Those conservatives just don’t get Canadian public broadcasting,” much of the editorial rings troublingly true to my ears.



  • Aug 17, 2005

    Silver linings?

    Over the past few days, I’ve really enjoyed finding and reading blogs by other CBC employees. It’s nice to come across sites like Mind the Gap — they serve as a reminder that there are other young public broadcasters who feel the same way I do.

    Working at a station full of veterans, it’s sometimes easy to forget there are other people in the same boat: young, interested in a career, and worried.



  • Aug 16, 2005

    Hello Toronto!

    Looks like Tod, Yvan, Ouimet, and I are now listed on cmgtoronto.ca under “Blogs.”

    I plan to spend this coming weekend in Toronto. And since CMG members don’t have to picket where they work, I may stay a few extra days and join my Toronto colleagues on the line.

    A special hello to the folks at CBL and Metro Morning (that link won’t work, by the way, because most individual program pages are down).