Save the drama for yer llama

"Our agreement is ratified; the future starts now"

That's the message that greeted me this morning from my Gmail inbox. The Canadian Media Guild and the CBC are going to hold hands and be friends this time around.

And frankly, I'm pretty happy with that. I was not, in any way shape or form, interested in striking/being locked out in -40 weather. That would just plain suck monkey balls.

There's not a whole not in the new collective agreement. Probably what I'm most interested in is that we can FINALLY buy a week's vacation per year... for a girl who likes to travel (who? Me?) that's a biggie. I don't relish taking leave without pay, but (now that I have most of the furniture etc. I need) if there's anything I'm going to spend my money on, it's travelling.

Now, unfortunately, I don't think it will be something I can take advantage of for my NEXT vacation (yes, I am less than one week back, and I'm already planning the next trip...) but certainly makes living up here a bit more appealing.

There are still a couple things I'm not impressed with though, there's not really any big change in the "northern allowance" ... OUR northern allowance is a fraction of what the Feds get (yes, yes I know, we are not ACTUALLY part of the federal government, but we are an agency/crown corporation... and it's like we take all the crappy parts of being part of the feds and not many of the benefits...) AND I really would like to see a shift in the way the cbc.ca online stories are done: I think both the web writer and the reporter should get bylines, instead of neither. The only time I get online credit for my work is when I take photos for my stories, which is TOTALLY not my job at all, but I'm happy to do it anyways.

I honestly thought being on the Nunavut union executive would give me a chance to work out some of those "glitches" but I didn't feel like I ever had the chance to voice my opinions. And if someone who is *elected* to be a union rep feels that way, I can only imagine how disconnected the regular membership must feel.

But that's just IMHO.