Bell Media has cut an additional 43 technician jobs as part of the restructuring it announced in February, the company confirmed to CBC News on Thursday.
The announcement comes after the company said it would move its local broadcaster CP24 from its Queen Street headquarters┬аto its Scarborough, Ont., campus this fall, with┬аbusiness news organization BNN Bloomberg┬аto follow in 2025.
“No departures will occur until the period between August 30 and September 27. We will be providing training, offering voluntary severance packages and eliminating vacant positions wherever possible to mitigate the impact on our team members,” a spokesperson for Bell Media told CBC News.
“Bell has and will continue to comply with all of its obligations under the respective collective agreements, and to comply with all applicable federal laws.”
In a statement released Thursday, Unifor┬аsaid it was “concerned and outraged” that Bell Media was making another restructuring announcement that could impact 49 “unionized positions”┬аafter a┬аround of layoffs┬аearlier this year that saw Bell’s parent company, BCE, cut┬а4,800 jobs and sell off 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.
“This is a corporation that has made billions of profits at the end of last year, and they continue to carry on with their profit-over-people principle,”┬аUnifor┬аnational president Lana Payne said in the statement.
“This is yet another blow to journalism and democracy and a step towards bigger swaths of news deserts across Canada.”
Unifor said the cuts affect several areas of┬аproduction, including electronic news gathering (ENG)┬аeditors and supervisors, media service┬аco-ordinators, media service┬аtechnicians, graphics artists, post-sound and┬аaudio-visual technicians┬аand engineering technicians.
