“Going from everything to nothing, it sure hurts,” testified Éric Lavigne as he left the TVA building, Boulevard De Maisonneuve Est in Montreal, Thursday afternoon. After two decades with the company, this editor for the show The cheater was preparing to redo his CV.
TVA Group employees who entered or left the emblematic building in the Ville-Marie district on Thursday afternoon had their heads down. Many preferred to keep their comments to themselves. Others agreed to express their astonishment to the journalists who came to meet them.
“Of course we can’t wait to have more details,” said Jany Rompré, an assistant director who has been employed by Groupe TVA for two years. When speaking to The Pressshe didn’t yet know if her job was at stake. But being one of the last people hired, she expected to have to leave.
The atmosphere was one of shock in the premises on Thursday, confirmed several people on site.
The news hit employees “head on,” lamented Kevin Murphy, a researcher on the show. Hi hello since 2019.
Indeed, after the announcement last February of the abolition of 140 positions, Mr. Murphy hoped that the restructuring announced was sufficient. “I didn’t expect that at all, at all,” he confided. It’s a big blow to morale. »
Given the circumstances, his employer is doing things the best he can, the researcher believes.
I don’t have the impression of I don’t care, the announcement of [Pierre Karl Péladeau], it was felt, he was very involved, vulnerable. The explanations were clear and transparent.
Kevin Murphy, show researcher Hi hello
Employee services will also be offered, added Mr. Murphy.
“It’s not going up anymore”
The surprise was just as big for Éric Lavigne, an employee of Groupe TVA since 1998. This editor of the show The cheater learned on Friday that production would now be transferred externally. There was no certainty that his expertise would be needed by this new team. “I’m going back to the freelance world,” he said. “Tomorrow morning, I have to redo my CV. »
The upheaval is all the greater because it is experienced by his entire team, he added. “It’s harder to manage,” explained Mr. Lavigne, with tears in his eyes.
We are all colleagues, and here we close everything together. You have to digest it.
Éric Lavigne, editor for the show The cheater
The 51-year-old knew that profits were no longer there for the TVA Group, but did not expect such an announcement. “This is not the first time that we have been in a slump,” he said. Before, it always came back. There, it doesn’t go up anymore. »
Online support
Messages of support and sadness also flooded online Thursday. “Dark day for a third of our friends and colleagues at the TVA Group,” lamented the reporter on Montreal Journal Francis Pilon. “547 of them lost their jobs, just before the holidays and the end of the year,” he added. Big thought for all those affected. »
“With all my heart with my 547 colleagues who learned today that they will lose their jobs at TVA,” said host Annie-Soleil Proteau. “Passionate, valiant people, who face a worrying nothingness. I hold you tight, each of you. Let’s support our Quebec media…”
For singer-songwriter Gilles Valiquette, met in front of 1600, boulevard De Maisonneuve Est after an intervention in the studio to talk about the new Beatles song, these cutbacks at TVA will have an impact on Quebec culture. “From the moment you eclipse local production, the entire culture loses. »