Conciliation period pushed back to Sept. 22
Conflict continues between Groupe TVA and its unionized employees who reiterated their intentions on Aug. 26 in favour of pressure tactics up to and including strike action.
About 830 employees of TVA Montreal have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2016.
“Our objective remains to negotiate a satisfactory collective agreement for both parties. However, the issues relating to jobs being assigned to TVA affiliates and Quebecor and position vacancies have to be resolved, and to do this, support from our membership is essential,” said Marc-André Hamelin, Montreal president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Local 687.
Numerous union members gathered at the Centre Saint-Pierre in Montreal to attend the negotiation meeting and again gave their bargaining committee a strong mandate, as they had done last June 19, said the union.
Several conciliation meetings yielded little progress. On Aug. 23, the bargaining committee agreed to extend the conciliation period by a week, thereby pushing back the right to strike or to lock out to Sept. 22, according to CUPE.
For several months, the union has been critical of work normally done by TVA employees being transferred to other Quebecor affiliates such as Quebecor Media or even to MELS studios, said the union.
