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Victoria Strike Settled; Ontario Newspaper Disputes Continue
An eight-week strike that all but shut down the Victoria Times-Colonist in British Columbia has been settled, but striking members of The Newspaper Guild-CWA at two Ontario papers and locked-out workers at another were maintaining picket lines as the CWA News went to press.
The three-year agreement in Victoria, with annual raises of 2.5 percent and no rollbacks for the Guild, press operators or composing room unions, came after a non-stop weekend of bargaining. The paper’s two Guild units ratified the contract 185 to 22.
“The company really wanted to bust our contracts and bust the joint council that operates here, which this time around was solid as a rock,” said TNG Canada Representative Dan Zeidler. “There were no concessions. The unions hung onto everything they had and made some gains — modest gains, but nevertheless gains. From my point of view, we won big time.”
Management at the paper, owned by Canadian media giant CanWest Global, had demanded large wage and benefit cuts for some workers, contracting-out language, reduced sick pay and other contract changes.
The paper was forced to stop publishing when the strike began Sept 3, and later produced only a weekly issue. The involved Guild units include 250 editorial, circulation, advertising and customer service employees in Local 30223 and mailers in TNG-CWA Local 30403.
Meanwhile in Ontario, a lockout continued at The Sudbury Star, and a joint Guild unit representing workers at the Cobourg Daily Star and Port Hope Evening Guide maintained a strike that began Oct. 11.
In Sudbury, the company chose to lock out 80 employees just minutes after union leaders at the Star had agreed to let members vote on a paltry contract offer Oct. 5. All are members of TNG-CWA 30232 except for eight pressroom workers who belong to the Graphic Communications International Union.
The paper immediately brought in scab labor and was ready with private security guards and new surveillance cameras inside and outside the plant. “Despite the commitment for a membership vote on the final offer, the employer nevertheless locked out the employees, on the grounds that he had to protect the safety of his ‘assets and staff’ from the prospect of potential job action by the unions,” Local 30232 President Denis St. Pierre said.
Key issues in Sudbury not only include wages, pensions, mileage reimbursement and working conditions, but the availability of such basic job necessities as phones and desks. “Incredibly, the union bargaining committees have had to negotiate for issues such as the provision of adequate numbers of telephones, desks and computers so reporters and editors do not have to share equipment or scramble for a place to work,” St. Pierre said.
The Sudbury Star is part of the Osprey Media Group, a chain that owns 32 daily and weekly newspapers in Ontario, including the Cobourg and Port Hope papers that employ 45 members of the Peterborough Typographical Union, TNG-CWA Local 30248.
By a margin of 93 percent, the Peterborough unit authorized the strike in September after the company continued to refuse to offer workers more than a 6.5 percent raise over three years, less than the inflation rate. Wages at the papers average $10.91 an hour in Canadian dollars, the equivalent of $6.65 an hour in the United States.
“It is an uncontested fact that (our members) are some of the poorest paid newspaper employees in the country,” union leaders said. “The employer has taken advantage of the good will and hard-work ethics of its employees, leaving us in an untenable financial position.”
The three-year agreement in Victoria, with annual raises of 2.5 percent and no rollbacks for the Guild, press operators or composing room unions, came after a non-stop weekend of bargaining. The paper’s two Guild units ratified the contract 185 to 22.
“The company really wanted to bust our contracts and bust the joint council that operates here, which this time around was solid as a rock,” said TNG Canada Representative Dan Zeidler. “There were no concessions. The unions hung onto everything they had and made some gains — modest gains, but nevertheless gains. From my point of view, we won big time.”
Management at the paper, owned by Canadian media giant CanWest Global, had demanded large wage and benefit cuts for some workers, contracting-out language, reduced sick pay and other contract changes.
The paper was forced to stop publishing when the strike began Sept 3, and later produced only a weekly issue. The involved Guild units include 250 editorial, circulation, advertising and customer service employees in Local 30223 and mailers in TNG-CWA Local 30403.
Meanwhile in Ontario, a lockout continued at The Sudbury Star, and a joint Guild unit representing workers at the Cobourg Daily Star and Port Hope Evening Guide maintained a strike that began Oct. 11.
In Sudbury, the company chose to lock out 80 employees just minutes after union leaders at the Star had agreed to let members vote on a paltry contract offer Oct. 5. All are members of TNG-CWA 30232 except for eight pressroom workers who belong to the Graphic Communications International Union.
The paper immediately brought in scab labor and was ready with private security guards and new surveillance cameras inside and outside the plant. “Despite the commitment for a membership vote on the final offer, the employer nevertheless locked out the employees, on the grounds that he had to protect the safety of his ‘assets and staff’ from the prospect of potential job action by the unions,” Local 30232 President Denis St. Pierre said.
Key issues in Sudbury not only include wages, pensions, mileage reimbursement and working conditions, but the availability of such basic job necessities as phones and desks. “Incredibly, the union bargaining committees have had to negotiate for issues such as the provision of adequate numbers of telephones, desks and computers so reporters and editors do not have to share equipment or scramble for a place to work,” St. Pierre said.
The Sudbury Star is part of the Osprey Media Group, a chain that owns 32 daily and weekly newspapers in Ontario, including the Cobourg and Port Hope papers that employ 45 members of the Peterborough Typographical Union, TNG-CWA Local 30248.
By a margin of 93 percent, the Peterborough unit authorized the strike in September after the company continued to refuse to offer workers more than a 6.5 percent raise over three years, less than the inflation rate. Wages at the papers average $10.91 an hour in Canadian dollars, the equivalent of $6.65 an hour in the United States.
“It is an uncontested fact that (our members) are some of the poorest paid newspaper employees in the country,” union leaders said. “The employer has taken advantage of the good will and hard-work ethics of its employees, leaving us in an untenable financial position.”