at the heart of quality public broadcasting

Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain–CSN
February 2012, vol. 26, no. 2
RADIO-CANADA/CBC:
at the heart
of quality
public broadcasting
Shameless lies
for electors
“We have to be lucid enough to recognize when a party
reaches the twilight of its existence and do what is
necessary so that all the work done for the past two
decades does not go up in smoke.”
– Jean Allaire
A
part from the clumsy metaphor, the words of Jean
Allaire, founder and first leader of the Action
démocratique du Québec (ADQ) are at least clear. If the ADQ wants to continue its work trying to drive home its
right-wing ideas, it has no choice but to merge with François
Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ). Although ADQ
members are not all equally enthusiastic about it, this “marriage
of convenience” highlights how decidedly right-wing the CAQ’s
proposals are. As these lines are written, we still don’t know
whether the “engaged couple” will in fact tie the knot, since
many of the 2,500 members of the ADQ who had until January
19 to vote were speaking out against it.
The end of “not this, not that”
When he started out, François Legault claimed that he didn’t
want to be labelled. He was neither left-wing nor right-wing,
neither sovereignist nor federalist, he said. Various political
observers have described this pseudo-neutrality as “ninisme” - a
kind of definition by the negative: not this, not that. But the truth
was soon obvious, and neutrality was tossed out the window.
Because Legault has chosen to ally with the ADQ. Furthermore,
two former ADQ MNAs who left to sit as independents in the
fall of 2009 – Éric Caire, MNA for La Peltrie and Marc Picard,
MNA for Chutes-de-la-Chaudière – will join Daniel Ratthé,
Benoît Charrette and François Rebello, all ex-Péquistes, and
the four ADQ MNAs – Gérard Deltell, Sylvie Roy, François
Bonnardel and Janvier Grondin – to constitute a caucus of nine
CAQ MNAs when the National Assembly resumes sitting, even
though the party won’t hold its founding convention until March.
2 • February 2012 Unité
Dominique Daigneault
secrétaire générale du CCMM–CSN
When Éric Caire lost to Gilles Taillon by one vote in the 2009
ADQ leadership race, he defended a program intended to make
the ADQ even more right-wing! Indeed, at a press conference on
December 19, 2011, he said, “I challenge you… to look at the
ADQ program that I’ve defended and the coalition’s proposal,
and tell me whether there’s much difference between the two.”
At the very least, the CAQ’s initial vague “Well, let’s wait and see”
policy positions are becoming clearer and clearer.
There’s a lot to do…
Of course, keeping an eye on the CAQ will not be our sole
concern during the next parliamentary session. We’ll stay
focused on our priority struggles. This will mean paying special
attention to what happens with the recommendations from the
Committee on Labour and the Economy on the modernization
of anti-scab provisions in the Labour Code. The adoption
of new provisions could put an end to the indirect use of
replacement workers in labour disputes like the one at the
Journal de Montréal, for example. We will of course continue to
actively oppose the anti-social measures contained in the Charest
government’s budget, notably by participating actively in various
actions including the February 16 demonstration organized by
the Coalition opposée à la tarification et à la privatisation des
services publics (Coalition against fees and the privatization of
public services). The Coalition’s three priority demands are the
withdrawal of the increase in tuition announced in last year’s
budget, the withdrawal of the $200 per person health tax and
the withdrawal of the announced increase in hydro rates. The
student movement will be joining in with a campaign against
tuition hikes, and the central council will lend its wholehearted
support to this struggle for access to education.
These are just a few of the issues that concern us. The
labour movement’s struggle is a long-term battle, one that must
be waged on many fronts. Political parties are born and die, but
social demands for a better world are here to stay.
Tous amis de Radio-Canada
L’information indépendante
et la culture au cœur d’un
service public de qualité
Devenez amis de Radio-Canada
facebook.com/amisradiocanada
@amisradiocanada
F
www.amisderadiocanada.com
or years now, public funding
for Radio-Canada/CBC has
been declining in constant dollars.
With each passing year, its budget
is eroded. What it means is that a
major player in the development
of French-language TV, radio and
media is losing ground. Right now,
funding for Radio-Canada/CBC
costs each Canadian citizen $34 a
year, the third-lowest amount for
public broadcasting among OECD
countries, barely ahead of spending
by the United States and New Zealand. The average level of public
funding for public broadcasting
around the world is $87 per capita,
according to a study done by Nordicity in 2009.
In light of these facts, members
of the Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada (SCRC–
CSN), together with the Fédération
nationale des communications
(FNC–CSN) and the CSN, decided
to revive the national campaign
launched in 2009 to save RadioCanada/CBC.
Naturally, the SCRC-CSN fears
for the livelihood of its members,
who work in more than a hundred
radio and TV stations all across the
country. But above all, the union
fears for the future of our public
broadcaster. Although RadioCanada/CBC’s funding is decided
by Parliament in Ottawa, the solution lies in the hands of its listeners,
viewers and Internet audience.
A fight for quality public broadcasting
Campaign to save Radio-Canada
All friends of
Radio-Canada/CBC,
at the heart of quality
public broadcasting
This is why the current campaign,
on the theme of Tous amis de
Radio-Canada, au cœur d’un service public de qualité (All friends of
Radio-Canada, at the heart of quality public broadcasting), is aimed
at getting citizens involved: it’s their
turn to speak out in their communities and to politicians from all parties
in defence of Radio-Canada/CBC.
The CSN therefore invites you
to set up support groups for RadioCanada/CBC in each region and
to let your elected representatives
know that you want quality public
broadcasting. Various national
actions will organized as well in the
coming weeks and months. The
co-ordinating committee for the
campaign invites you to circulate
this information widely among your
families, friends and colleagues. The
more of us there are, the more of a
difference we can make!
In 1936, the people of Canada
gave Radio-Canada/CBC a mission
to inform, enlighten and entertain.
The context today is certainly very
different from what it was then,
but the mandate of CBC/RadioCanada remains the same: to offer
typically Canadian programming in
both official languages that reflects
Canada’s linguistic, cultural and
regional diversity. Radio-Canada/
CBC is radio and TV stations all
across Canada; it’s Espace musique
and Radio 2, places for our artists
and performers to shine; it’s outstanding, impartial news programs;
it’s an Internet portal chock-full
of information; and it’s TOU.TV,
a webTV that receives more than
400,000 visits a month. In short, it’s
a large part of our cultural heritage
that we have to defend and improve.
Follow the campaign on Internet, Facebook and Twitter.
 www.amisderadiocanada.com
 www.facebook.com/amisradiocanada
 @amisradiocanada
Félix Cauchy-Charest,
Information staff
representative
Couche-Tard
T
he outreach campaign
continues to progress in
Couche-Tard convenience
stores. A fifth group of
employees has decided to organize and join the CSN. This
time, it’s the Couche-Tard located at 18401 Antoine-Faucon,
in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro
district of Montréal. An application for certification was filed
with the Commission des relations du travail on December
8. Watch for further developments.
Unité February 2012 • 3
SAQ threatens to close a number of stores
An unbridled pursuit of more profits!
T
he Société des alcools du
Québec (SAQ) intends to close
a number of its stores in the coming
months as a way of “optimizing
its network”, Unité has learned.
Although all its stores are profitable, the government corporation has
announced that it will soon be closing stores in Pointe-Saint-Charles,
in southwestern Montréal, as well as
Côte-des-Neiges and Saint-Michel.
Furthermore, a merger will result in
the Forges St. store in Trois-Rivières
closing in the near future. All this
comes on top of the four stores that
have already been closed, including
one in Rimouski in 2009. And it was
only grassroots mobilization that
prevented the closing of the Lebelsur-Quévillon store.
Mobilization in PointeSaint-Charles
To protest the SAQ’s intention to
close their local store, community
groups and citizens in Pointe-SaintCharles launched a campaign in
mid-October, at the initiative of the
Table de concertation communautaire Action-Gardien, made up of
some twenty neighbourhood organizations supported by the Syndicat
des employé-es de magasins et de
bureaux de la SAQ (SEMB-SAQCSN). The campaign’s theme, SAQ
pas ton camp de la Pointe ! Des services
au coeur du quartier (SAQ don’t leave –
services at the heart of the neighbourhood),
reflects citizens’ determination to protect local services in Pointe-SaintCharles.
4 • February 2012 Unité
Some twenty people visited the SAQ head office and the Montréal office
of the Minister of Finance last December to protest the closing of the
Pointe-Saint-Charles store in southwest Montréal.
“As a government corporation,
the SAQ is mandated to provide
services to the population. It has
to put the interests of the public
ahead of its managers’ interests,”
argues Action-Gardien spokesperson Geneviève Grenier. According
to the SEMB-SAQ–CSN’s Patrick
St-Pierre, there is no justification for
closing this store, since it is profitable
and in fact increasingly profitable.
“We hear about optimization on a
daily basis at the SAQ. Last year,
Phase 1 of its optimization plan
was implemented at the expense of
employees; this year, the plan means
closing stores,” explained the secretary of the SEMB-SAQ.
Petition
There have been various other
actions to convince the government
corporation to abandon its intention of closing the Pointe-St-Charles store. Some 4,350 people signed
a petition against the closing, and
a huge banner has been put up on
Charlevoix St., close to the store.
Located just across from a subway
station, the SAQ store has been there
for more than 25 years. The fear is
that the elimination of the store will
undermine the work being done
to revitalize the sector. Remember,
Pointe-Saint-Charles is a poor neighbourhood. No doubt SAQ management thinks that there’s less money
to be made serving people who are
less well-off…
Other stores may be
closed too
The SEMB-SAQ fears that other
stores may be targeted for closing.
Last year, the union did its own
study, using the SAQ’s profitability
criteria (sales, customer traffic, location, etc.) and estimated that there
were 20 stores that might be closed
in the medium term, because the
government corporation doesn’t
think they are profitable enough
to be kept open. According to the
union, though, these decisions stem
more from the company’s relentless
drive for greater profits. For example, the Atwater market store’s profits “per square foot” are down since
the section serving restaurants was
transferred to any store. It looks like
Pointe-Saint-Charles residents are
being asked to pay for the lower
profits at the Atwater store (both of
these are located in the southwestern part of the city). According
to the union, these closings will
have a major impact on employees,
because their hours will be cut.
Those affected most will be the
part-time employees. As well, closing stores leads to the development
of agencies to replace the stores that
are closed. These are convenience
stores equipped with a SAQ counter.
It proves that there is still a need,
even if the store is closed.
Strong annual sales
For the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the
SAQ paid the Québec government
dividends of $914.7 million - $60.8
million more than the amount forecast in its 2010-2012 Strategic Plan.
The cumulative net sales of the
network of stores was $2.365 billion
for the same period, up $104.9 million over the previous year. “In these
circumstances, there’s no reason to
cut services to citizens. The SAQ
is making huge profits, and it has
a duty to provide people with good
service,” concluded Patrick StPierre.