The Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s unionized technical staff and journalists have been voting Wednesday and today on whether to grant their union, the Canadian Media Guild, a strike mandate.

There are approximately 5,500 unionized CBC workers in Canada.

There are about 30 unionized workers at CBC North's Yukon network, Russ Knutson, president of the local Canadian Media Guild branch, said in an interview today.

A strike would, in essence, put the network off the air in terms of local programming, said the veteran program host and former television reporter.

The vote comes after more than a year of heated contract negotiations that began in May 2004.

As of Aug. 14, the CBC and the Canadian Media Guild will be in a position where they will be able to start labour action that could be a strike or a lockout.

Seventy-two hours' notice are needed, so the earliest date of a strike would be Aug. 18.

Much of the debate revolves around challenges related to bringing the technical staff and the journalists together under a single contract.

The Canadian Media Guild began representing both groups in January 2004.

'The CBC is hoping there is a fair amount of disunity still in the union. So they are asking for things that people on both sides have realized are just not acceptable,' said Knutson.

The network has been pushing to hire more workers on a temporary contract basis rather than establishing permanent positions.

'The issues are really about, I think, the future of public broadcasting and the CBC has really been taken over by a lot of outside people who have no idea of the culture within, and that's a frightening thing,' said Knutson.

'We have rejects from companies who have basically gone broke, running the CBC now. They don't understand what it is that we do down here, and that's the scary part for us.'

Hiring individuals on temporary contracts is fairly common in private broadcasting. However, the union has been arguing the public broadcast realm the CBC operates in calls for innovative and challenging programming that may take time to attract an audience, and the workers need to have some kind of job security.

Before the amalgamation of the technical workers and the journalists into a single union, the technical workers have gone on strike during their last two contract negations. However, the journalists would still go into work.

'This time around, the difference is that everyone will go and the CBC will essentially fade to black,' said Knutson.

He expects there to be an 'overwhelming strike mandate' when the numbers are announced, likely on Wednesday morning of next week.

All the ballots from the union members across Canada are being shipped to Toronto to be tallied this weekend.

'We're still optimistic that if we can get an 85- or 90-per-cent strike mandate that the CBC will suddenly have to sit up and say, They're willing to go, and it will cripple the CBC,'' he said.

With strong ratings in radio and Hockey Night in Canada likely returning to television this fall, the CBC has a lot of considerations to make about whether to permit a strike or lockout to occur at this time, Knutson added.

'There's lots of considerations there and we're hopeful this is going to wake them up and actually get some action.'

The last major strike was in 1981 and lasted four months, during which time there were 'terrible newscasts and elevator music' broadcast on the CBC, said Knutson.

However, that time around, CBC North was able to get its viewers and listeners back because there wasn't that much competition in the communities, he said.

'This time around, there is a lot more competition, and we stand to lose people.

'In past situations, people have been obviously annoyed to lose programing and things like that, but the CBC is very important to them, and I think that as the front line people who represent the CBC, most of them seem to believe that if we say we aren't happy with the way things are going, that it's to the benefit of everyone to have the CBC listen to us,' he said.

The public doesn't seem very aware of the ongoing negotiations and the possible implications of a strike, said Knutson. He suspects if there is a strike, people would initially be annoyed.

'But people listen to the CBC for a specific region,' he said. 'If there was a strike, it may take some time, but I think those listeners would come back.

'There's just a level of information that we provide that no one else does, because that's just not their focus or their mandate.'

The decision to strike is not being taken lightly, he added. 'It's a big decision.'

The managers for all the stations have been flown to Toronto for training that should enable them to keep some level of general radio and television programming on air.

But, Knutson said, he suspects it would likely be 'pretty awful.'

Knutson said he doesn't know why the CBC has 'played games so long' in the negotiations.

However, historically the heated labour talks between the network and the union are the norm as the August deadline approaches.

The contract would cover the rest of 2005 through to 2008.