After two years of negotiations, employees of the RDS news service are in the process of concluding their first collective agreement, which provides for the granting of 43 permanent positions, has learned Press.
An agreement in principle with the employer Bell Media was reached at the beginning of the month. The offer was then 85% approved at a general meeting. The convention is due to enter into force within the next two weeks, time to finalize the texts and affix official signatures.
“It’s a sigh of relief,” commented the president of the Union of RDS news employees, Francis Paquin, reached by phone.
The agreement, which concerns in particular reporters, editors, directors and coordinators, includes a bumping chain in respect of seniority and, above all, the granting of 43 permanence, a number that Mr. Paquin describes as “enormous” , given the difficult economic and financial context in which the media find themselves in Quebec. In addition, permanent positions had been trickled down for years.
For a first collective agreement, it is satisfactory. We had a lot of employees who had been working on temporary status for a long time. In our unit, we had a colleague who had dragged his for 14 years even though he worked full time. According to our new agreement, this kind of situation will not happen again.
Francis Paquin, President of the Union of RDS News Employees
Salary advances
On the wage side, the union hopes to achieve more progress in the coming years.
“Several permanent employees wanted a salary catch up,” conceded Francis Paquin. Over the years, we realized that we were earning much lower wages than elsewhere. For journalist positions, we are talking about a gap of 15% to 20% compared to media of comparable size in Montreal. We managed to reduce this gap a little. It is not perfect, but we must recognize that the employer has put money in to provide on-call duty. It’s not like he’s been stingy. “
Press contacted Bell Media, but the company did not respond to our messages.
On the union side, we hope that with this first agreement, RDS will succeed in keeping its talented employees.
“We hear a lot about the staff shortage,” said the union president. All businesses experience this problem. They must improve working conditions. ”
Many people – and especially young people – have left [RDS] lately because they were lucky to have more stability elsewhere. This time, we dare to hope that they will stay because they benefit from more interesting conditions.
Francis Paquin, President of the Union of RDS News Employees
A “last chance at negotiations”
As of April 2019, approximately 85 employees of the Sports Network (RDS) news service had unionized through the Canada Industrial Relations Board. Talks officially started in July. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, slowed down the process, as did changes in spokespersons, both on the union and management side, explained Francis Paquin.
Despite a vote in favor of pressure tactics in November 2020, the union president says that in recent months, the situation has never come close to degenerating into a real labor dispute. The arrival of the new spokespersons last winter would have had a beneficial effect on the discussions. “So we decided to give the negotiations a last chance, and it paid off. ”
The pandemic hit RDS last year. In 2020, the channel had 2,047,000 subscribers, down 11.4% from 2019, according to the most recent statistical and financial statements from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. His total income, estimated at $ 138,000,000 according to this report, was also in decline. A decline of around 7% compared to 2019.