In July 1986, I volunteered at Citytv, then 99 Queen Street East, in my last year of high school at Westwood Secondary School, now Lincolon Alexandr in Malton, Mississauga.
I had called various television stations to see a sportscast was produced.
Because I wasn’t calling as a CO-OP student, the CBC and Global didn’t let me in the door.
But since Citytv didn’t have such a rule, Jim McKenny said that I could come down to hangout and absorb the environment.
I did that while going to school and working part-time at Bi-Way, you remember Bi-Way-lol.
When I graduated from Westwood HS I got into the Journalism course at Humber College, North Campus and continued to volunteer at Citytv.
The summer of my second of 3 years at Humber College I was offered a real full-time job in the Citytv news library.
I quit Humber College because I got a job in the city without finishing college, I got my dream job without a diploma.
In 1986 Citytv was not unionized and I was a part of the studio crew who initiated talks in forming a Union.
By September 1988 Citytv/MuchMusic was unionized.
I had always had the union bug thanks to my father, Norman. He was a Steward at Canada Packers (he was a maintenance welder in the soap division), and he always stood up for his fellow workers and I’d wanted to do the same with the group at Citytv.
As with every new local there was some push-back until they saw what our jobs were worth compared to the other television stations in Toronto.
We signed the majority of employees in no-time-at-all.
After 5 years in the News Library, I worked my way into the Citytv News Editing Department until I was packed out in February 2010, that’s when Rogers finally bought the CHUM stations from CTV/Bell Media.
I Edited the sports highlights for the 11:00 pm newscasts and edited news stories for the 6:00 pm newscasts for 18 of my 23 years.
I was on 6 negotiating committees representing the Citytv newsroom, the videotape Editors, Librarians and some production staff.
During my years at Local 723M, I was a Steward, Vice President and Treasurer.
When I was packaged out in 2010, I worked in the Local Union office for 4 years. That was a great time because I got to learn more about the inner workings of the Local and got to see everyone at one time or another.Through the Toronto and York Region Labour Council newsletter I saw the announcement for a new group that was forming of union educators, activists, etc. I wanted to learn more about these people and their experiences, so I attended the meeting at the Steelworkers Hall and joined the birth of the Toronto Workers’ History Project and then later became the Treasurer.And since then we have grown so much that I am very fortunate to be a part of this group’s achievements and look forward to a historical future.In 2014 I needed another challenge, I became a Paralegal and worked in a Labour office in Toronto for 3 years.That was very rewarding as well. I met and worked with a few unionized workers who came to our office for advice, but our main clients were non-unionized and that was a challenge, but the Lawyers always fought for the best out-come.In 2018 I was laid off due to the retirement of the Lawyer I was working for and then COVID hit!!Once the working world was getting back to ‘normal’ I applied for a Call Centre position at Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP), but the Manager there knew me from my Citytv years and offered me the position of Chapters Relations Administer. I took the job in December 2021 and have been enjoying the job since.