The prime ticket is no longer the pickets at Edmonton’s A-Channel.

After close to five months of walking the line, the television station’s unionized workers have reached a tentative deal with station management for their first contract.

Known for its Prime Ticket movies and independent bent, the station is part of Calgary-based Craig Media Inc., Canada’s largest privately held television broadcasting company. Other Craig Media holdings include A-Channel Calgary, A-Channel Winnipeg, a new Toronto station and a number of digital specialty channels, but the Edmonton affiliate was the only one in a strike situation.

The strike reached acidic levels on both sides – there were complaints by the union about management strike-breaking while the station claimed strikers crossed the line in trying to get clients to stop advertising.

File photo by Dan Riedlhuber, Business Edge
The five-month-long A-Channel Edmonton strike has ended with the announcement of a tentative first contract.

Unionized workers were to vote on the deal on February 14. Acceptance means workers would return to their jobs March 1.

“We’re confident that (the ratification) will be passed because the bargaining committee is recommending it,” said Adrian Pearce, unit chair of Local 1900 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) and an A-Channel employee.

Pearce said he believed the agreement would be ratified as it included movement on five key union issues: Preventing the company from transferring work to other locations such as A-Channel Calgary; job security; action on discipline and grievances; basic rights and benefits for part-time employees; and wage concerns.

“In a nutshell, we got all of those things (that are listed on the union website) and that’s why we have recommended ratification because those are the fundamental things we wanted to have in the agreement,” said Pearce.

A-Channel Edmonton’s Jim Haskins, the station’s general manager, said prior to the ratification that he could not comment on the contents of the contract as it had yet to be approved by the union membership.

“Obviously we worked very hard to reach an agreement. It was a long five-month strike. I don’t think anyone wins in a strike and we’re looking forward to putting this behind us and producing award-winning television,” said Haskins.

“We’re very happy that they’ve come to an agreement,” said Don MacNeil, CEP administrative vice-president, western region. “First-contract agreements in Alberta are difficult at the best of times. The national union is very appreciative of the two sides finding a way to get to a tentative settlement.”

Pearce said he believes the tentative agreement came about due to a combination of contributing factors – including talk of Craig Media being up for sale and a Canada Industrial Relations Board meeting that was scheduled for February 16, just one week before the sides reached the deal.

“We noticed a marked change in the company’s willingness to negotiate with us. For over a year we negotiated with ourselves and it wasn’t until the labour board hearing and the sale (talk) of the company that they really began to negotiate with us,” said Pearce.

But Haskins responded that “the union is reaching for stuff that is not there.” “The company is not for sale, our CEO (Drew Craig) has said that,” he said. “We’re investigating strategic contacts.”

Further, he said, the company had already testified at the labour board hearing and suggested it was the union that instead wanted to avoid appearing.

The strike began September 17, 2003. “We did everything in our power to negotiate a (first) contract, and we told them on September 16 that we would be walking out on the 17th, and I had every expectation that the company would say: ‘Let’s do a deal,’ ” said Pearce.

“We were sure they would back off and want to negotiate.”

Instead, high-profile on-air A-Channel Edmonton personalities, among others, crossed the picket lines. Shows went on, though the station’s ratings dropped. The union credits an effective strike for the low ratings.

“The conclusive proof was the strike,” said Pearce.

“A-Channel Calgary’s ratings didn’t go up, they didn’t go down (during the same period) and they run the same programming, the same type of operation. It’s not unreasonable to conclude that, if not for a strike here, our ratings would have remained flat as well.”

Haskins disputes the union claim as a stretch.

“Ratings are cyclical, they’re diary-based and the very nature of that technology has a tendency to be very spiky,” he said.

While the station’s fall ratings book was softer than its last book, said Haskins, “we run the same programming in Winnipeg, Calgary and Toronto, and the ratings were softer than we would like in those stations.

“So you can’t draw any connection of what happened in Edmonton because there is no connection.”

As for returning to work with those who crossed the lines, Pearce said it will be difficult. Thirty-five out of 102 employees crossed the line, a number Haskins cites as “incredibly high” for a strike.

“That had to cause the union a lot of concern. We also had information from other strikers that had the deal not been done when it was, they were prepared to cross the line,” said Haskins.

The union, for its part, said a back-to-work protocol has been worked out and it will conduct itself according to the protocol.

“I won’t say it will be easy, though,” said Pearce, “and that station will never be the same.”