CBC Lockout Watch, Day 18.1

CBC management characterizes yesterday's lockout talks as "respectful discussions." The Canadian Media Guild calls them "positive."

My, you can just feel the love in the air, can't you?

John Gushue suggests that the shorter the press release, the more meaningful.

When I used to get e-mail announcements about senior executive changes at a previous employer, the shorter the e-mail, the nastier the firing.

But every corporation is different, and divining CBC's intentions through its press releases sometimes requires the forensic skills of an old-time Sovietologist deciphering TASS announcements from the Kremlin.

While the locked-out journos and CMG have been waging the propaganda war in cyberspace and on campus airwaves, management has been notably far more restrained.

No surprise, as in my dealings with union bosses, I have found them to be equal parts bluff, bluster and bullshit.

I'm heartened to see that management is trying a few guerrilla tactics with a mailout to remind people of the effects of bumping.

CBC management has spent $5,500 in postage, and an unknown amount more in printing costs, on a controversial mailing that union representatives say is an attempt to pit locked-out workers against each other.

The six-page package, which began arriving at the homes of CMG members on Tuesday, asks in bold type: "How would you feel if someone bumped into your program or unit and couldn't do the job?"

Imagine if more senior bloggers could bump their upstart juniors off the blogrolls. We'd be just like the CBC, as seized with fear and paranoia towards each other as CBC employees are during the periodic purges.