Toronto and York Region Labour Day Parade 2023: Many Firsts for CMG Members at TVO

TORONTO, Sept. 4, 2023 /CNW/ - For the last 151 years, the Toronto and York Region Labour Day Parade has been an opportunity for all workers including union members to collectively celebrate our victories and struggles. We should all be proud of the accomplishments the movement has been able to achieve for our communities.

Unfortunately, we continue to all feel the pressures of the rising cost of living and seeing our quality of life diminish so the fight for what we all deserve endures. This is especially true for the CMG members working at TVO who for the first time in the organization's 53-year history are on strike. They are fighting against the creation of a divisive two-tier benefits system and for fair wages, which are all too common themes these days.

Members have received below-inflation wage increases for the past 10 years, CMG said in a previous news release, including three years of wage freezes. "We're living in a time where hard work is not paying off the way it used to for previous generations," said Meredith Martin, TVO's branch president with the Canadian Media Guild (CMG).

In another first, the Canadian Media Guild's members will be leading this year's parade in a show of solidarity for the members on strike at TVO from the house of labour. They have been on the picket line for 14 days now and the Guild is extremely humbled by the show of support for our members as they fight for fairness that all union members and workers deserve. We thank all our supporters for your showings of solidarity. This support is vital to collectively achieve the victories that all workers, not just our members, need in these challenging times.

The Union is calling on TVO to come back to the table with a fair offer for our members so they can get back to doing what they do best, serving the citizens of Ontario with factually based local journalism and quality educational programming.

The Canadian Media Guild represents around 74 journalists, producers and education workers at the Ontario organization. TVO is a valuable public asset. The people who work there are dedicated public servants who consistently prove their worth telling the stories of Ontario. Journalism is fundamental to democracy and no place does long-form current affairs journalism like TVO. The Canadian Media Guild, Local 30213 of CWA-Canada, is a democratic trade union that represents over 5,000 members across Canada, including employees at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/ Société Radio-Canada, The Canadian Press and Pagemasters North America, Thomson Reuters, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), Buzzfeed, Islington Printing, TVO, TFO, Vice Media, ZoomerMedia, Canada's National Observer, AFP and CKOF.

SOURCE Canadian Media Guild