Television coverage of the Salt Lake Winter Games on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) could be affected because of a showdown between the CBC and its technician’s union.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union representing 1,600 cameramen, editors and other technical staff, will be in a legal strike position on Nov. 27.
Negotiations could come to a head in Salt Lake because a Nov. 6 deadline for Olympic accreditation forced the CBC to hire freelancers to work the Olympics.
Ruth-Ellen Soles, CBC spokesperson, called it a security issue. “We had to get accreditation in to the IOC and since our negotiations with the union hadn’t reached a positive conclusion, we decided to go with freelancers”.
