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Montreal Guild Wins Byline Fight
Members of the Montreal Newspaper Guild-CWA won a major victory with the recent decision of a Quebec arbitrator that newspaper workers, not local management or corporate executives, have the absolute right to control the use of their bylines and credit lines.
Union reporters, photographers and other workers at the Montreal Gazette sought to withhold their bylines for two days in December 2001, to protest a move by CanWest Global, the paper's owner, to run identical "national editorials" in more than a dozen CanWest publications at least three times a week.
The Gazette workers wanted to protest the owner's drive to centralize opinion, reduce public debate and serve narrow corporate interests, said TNG-CWA Local 30111. The local represents 297 Gazette employees. Byline strikes have long been an effective tactic by Guild members.
Ordered by the local editor in chief to restore their bylines, Guild members filed a grievance that was upheld by Arbitrator Jean-Pierre Lussier.
Jan Ravensbergen, first vice president of the Montreal Guild, said the ruling was important because it "effectively shields our members from ownership retribution for protest against CanWest Global policies. This is of particular importance now that the Senate of Canada has launched an in-depth examination of media ownership and control issues."
Union reporters, photographers and other workers at the Montreal Gazette sought to withhold their bylines for two days in December 2001, to protest a move by CanWest Global, the paper's owner, to run identical "national editorials" in more than a dozen CanWest publications at least three times a week.
The Gazette workers wanted to protest the owner's drive to centralize opinion, reduce public debate and serve narrow corporate interests, said TNG-CWA Local 30111. The local represents 297 Gazette employees. Byline strikes have long been an effective tactic by Guild members.
Ordered by the local editor in chief to restore their bylines, Guild members filed a grievance that was upheld by Arbitrator Jean-Pierre Lussier.
Jan Ravensbergen, first vice president of the Montreal Guild, said the ruling was important because it "effectively shields our members from ownership retribution for protest against CanWest Global policies. This is of particular importance now that the Senate of Canada has launched an in-depth examination of media ownership and control issues."