Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 05/05) - CBC workers may soon be off the picket line and back to work.

The Canadian Media Guild and CBC management reached an agreement in principle on Monday, the eighth week of the lock-out.

The major stumbling block on the negotiations - the number of contract employees hired - seems to have been settled.

"This was the major battle ground in the negotiations and we have won," said Arnold Amber, president of the CBC branch of the Canadian Media Guild.

CBC management has agreed to hire no more than 9.5 contract workers for every 100 permanent employees, as well as improved conditions for temporary workers.

A wage increase of 12.6 per cent over the life of the collective agreement, until March 2009, is also in the agreement.

Another aspect of the agreement is Northern-specific, with employees who work in more than one language receiving a premium of $800 per year.

Some Yellowknife CBC worker blogs are holding off the celebrations just yet.

"This sounds good but I want to see the actual language before I start jumping for joy," posted Cindy, Yellowknife reporter.

The language of the agreement, as well as the back to work protocol will hopefully be agreed upon today, said Allan Gofenko, Yellowknife location president of the Canadian Media Guild.

"The i's are being dotted and the t's crossed," he said.

"No one was sure what was going on and people were really starting to worry about bills, quitting their jobs and moving away," said Carol Morin, host of Northbeat.

Morin knows of three co-workers who left the North for other jobs.

Lock-out pay for the past four weeks has been $300 US per week and was $200 US per week for the first three weeks off the job.

As a single parent with three children, Morin had to be creative to make her finances work, she said.

"We had enough for the basic stuff, nothing extra," she said. "I also started singing to tourists at Aurora Village."

With word she may be back to work as early as Tuesday, Morin hopes any hard feelings towards management can be resolved. "I hope it's over - we all have to go back," she said.