Firing of CHCH workers was 'needlessly insensitive,' union says

A new, smaller team is beginningwork again at CHCHon Monday, after 129 full-time and 38 part-time personalities, reporters and other staffhad their jobs terminated on Friday.

Kate Carnegie, Bob Cowan and Annette Hamm are among the personalities who've already signaled they'll rejoin the Hamilton-basedstation as it restructures.

John McKenna, whose title was executive producer for news,posted two photos from the newsroom Monday morning.

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News coverage was abruptly cancelled Friday for that evening and the rest of the weekend as the news station's parent company announced it was filing for bankruptcy protection.

Beginning Monday, CHCH will broadcast 17.5 hours of local news every week,said ChrisFuoco, vice president of sales and marketing for Channel Zero,CHCH'sparent company. That's a significant dropfrom 80 hours per week broadcastbefore Friday's restructuring announcement.

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On Friday, 129 full-time and 38 part-time employees were let go.

Fuoco toldCBC News on Sunday that the new company that will provide news service to CHCH TV had offered jobs to 58 full-time and 23 part-time employees, with the same compensation and "substantially similar" benefits as the previous company.

Fuoco said he didn't have a tally yet, but that some people already have accepted the offers.

"Some made their decisions very quickly," Fuoco said. "Naturally people have needed some time to reflect and think about it. There was a lot of sadness, and so we're giving people time. But as I say, we've seen a large number come back."

The channel plans to broadcast a two-hour version of its Morning Live show from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., as well as an hour-long news broadcast at 6 p.m. and a half-hour news broadcast at 11 p.m. The new evening shows are scheduled to begin Monday, while the new Morning Live is slated for Tuesday morning.

Shows including Sportsline, Square Off, live daytime news and the early edition of Morning Live have been cancelled.

'There is a crisis in local broadcasting'

The sudden, deep cuts were talked about all over town over the weekend, online and off.Several journalists and staff from the station used Twitter to thankaudiences in the Hamilton regionfor their support and for watching CHCHover the years.

Reporter and formerfrequent weekend anchor Kate Carnegie announced on Twitter that she would return to the station Monday as a reporter. The weekend edition of the newshas been cancelled.

A Twitter account for the Morning Live show said that Bob Cowan and Annette Hamm would be among those on the show's team.

Longtime reporter and on-air personalityDonna Skellytold CBC News on Fridayshe is among those who have lost their jobs. That list also includeswell-known names such as Matt Hayes, who spent 33 years at the station, ScotUrquhart, who worked there for 35 years and LauranSabourin, who told the St. Catharines Standard she'd been "kicked to the curb" after 30 years with the station.

Fuoco said the cuts stemmed in part from the end offederal funding over the last few yearsin the form of the Local Programming Improvement Fund. That was asubsidy created to help smaller TVchannels survive the economic downturn and declining advertisingmarket.

"There is a crisis in local broadcasting in smaller centresaround the country Hamilton would be the largest of thosecentres," said Ian Morrison, a spokesman for the advocacy groupFriends of Canadian Broadcasting."It's a warning of things to come."

Fuoco said, "Fundamentally, there's something wrong with local broadcasting in Canada and we need to have a dialogue and look for long-term fixes for it."

'Needlessly insensitive treatment'

While Unifor, the union that represented CHCH employees, said the funding issue is important to acknowledge, so is the company's treatment of the workers.

The union said staff worked to prepare Friday's evening newscasts even as rumours were swirling around the station about the coming cuts. Unexpected deposits in employees' bank accountsreportedly tipped off some workers to the coming announcement.

"The company's needlessly insensitive treatment of its loyal staff is equally disturbing," reads a Unifor statement published Saturday.

"The people hurt by this decision have dedicated their careers to telling local stories to their community," said Unifor National President Jerry Dias in the statement. "And like all workers in such difficult circumstances, they deserve to be treated with respect and courtesy."

Fuoco said workers were paid out any accrued vacation, expense reimbursements and regular pay on Friday, and he said no employee received less than $4,000.He said the future of a relationship betweenCHCHNews and a union "remains to be seen."

kelly.bennett@cbc.ca | @kellyrbennett