Board: Everything's Swell

After their first meeting since the lockout began, the CBC Board of Directors released a statement today that seems to say - all is well.

On CBC's Audience:

we thank CBC/Radio-Canada listeners and viewers for their support
of the Corporation's creative talent and its programs. We are inspired by the
personal messages of the importance of public broadcasting to Canadians, and
we will do our best to keep faith with them.

On CBC Management:

we believe management's proposals are reasonable and prudent,
given the reality of our funding expectations.

and

We want to pay tribute to the President of the CBC/Radio-Canada, Robert
Rabinovitch, for his commitment to public broadcasting. We fully support the
strategic vision of his management team.

On the locked out workers:

We also want to pay tribute to the talent, skills and hard work of the
CMG members. They have produced work that is part of Canada's national
treasure. We look forward to welcoming them back to the jobs they do so well.

So, not to worry folks - the Board is responsible for the survival and health of the CBC and they seem to believe that everything is peachy.

One hopeful note though: Based on comments on another blog: If, as management insists only 5% of CBC employees are non-permanent (as opposed to the CMG number of 30%) perhaps this can all be ended with the following proposal - In exchange for consessions on other outstanding issues, the CMG could allow a full 10% of CBC to be other than full time permanent. (That's twice as flexible as before.)