Source: theglobeandmail.com
Newspaper publisher Postmedia Network Canada Corp. launched an experiment on Wednesday to ask readers to pay for content on its websites.
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Kingston campaign aims to restore Whig-Standard’s greatness
The GreatWhig.ca team launched the campaign at a news conference in Kingston this morning. From left: Martin O’Hanlon, project initiator and CWA Canada deputy director;Kingston writer Jamie Swift; GreatWhig.ca project manager Alec Ross; CWA Canada Director Arnold Amber; and Paul Schliesmann, Whig-Standard reporter and vice-president of the Kingston Typographical Union.
Souurce: cwa-scacanada.ca
CWA Canada hopes Quebecor responds to pressure
It’s a project the size and likes of which CWA Canada has never before undertaken. The mission? To enjoin an entire community in a campaign to pressure a corporate media giant to restore the quality of its daily newspaper.
An advertising blitz that heralds the launch today of the ambitious multi-media campaign is sure to make the Kingston Whig-Standard the talk of the town, which some time ago dubbed its once highly regarded publication the “Sub” Standard. The message to “Make It Great!” will emanate from billboards, transit ads, radio spots, flyers, the GreatWhig.ca website and a Facebook fan page.
Quebecor chief Pierre Karl Péladeau is about to get an earful from disgruntled readers and advertisers who have lamented the newspaper’s rapid decline under his stewardship. They will be sending email messages and signing a petition that calls on Quebecor to “devote the appropriate resources to the Whig-Standard so that Kingston can once again have a newspaper worthy of our great city.”
Martin O’Hanlon, deputy director of CWA Canada, initiated the project last fall and has overseen its development over the past six months. The executive of the Kingston Typographical Union (KTU), which represents Whig employees, heartily endorsed the plan and connected its architects with community leaders and activists who were quick to embrace the campaign.
“This is about fighting the good fight for quality local news and jobs. It’s not about union versus management; it’s about doing what’s best for everyone,” says O’Hanlon.
“We want to convince Quebecor that investing properly in its newspapers and keeping jobs in the community is good for readers, employees, democracy — and profits.”
Paul Schliesmann, a veteran reporter at the newspaper and vice-president of the KTU, says this is a last-ditch effort: “This project gives me the only hope I have left for the Whig-Standard.”
As the campaign material notes, the Whig-Standard used to be one of Canada’s best small-city newspapers. It won national awards for investigative reporting, offered in-depth coverage of Kingston issues and provided a balanced forum for discussion of matters of local and national importance.
In recent years, and particularly under Quebecor ownership, the qualities that once made the Whig-Standard a source of pride for Kingston have dramatically declined. Readers and advertisers keenly feel the loss.
Petitioners, whose message will go to both Péladeau and Ron Laurin, the newspaper’s publisher, will “request that Quebecor devote the appropriate resources to the Whig-Standard so that Kingston can once again have a newspaper worthy of our great city.”
Alec Ross, a long-time activist in Kingston who cares passionately about the Whig’s status, is co-ordinating the campaign for CWA Canada. A local company was contracted to design and construct the website, which features video testimonials from people in the community who describe the impact of Quebecor’s corporate decisions.
Among those weighing in are Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip, Richard Kizell, chair of the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation, professors, business people, politicians, writers and former Whig reporters.
“Generally,” says Ross, “I chose the video subjects because they are thoughtful, engaged and articulate Whig readers. We have a lot of support from prominent Kingstonians who totally sympathize with the cause, but who — for various reasons — declined to do a video.”
Lawrence Scanlan, who used to work at the Whig, recounts the halcyon days and expresses his sadness for what has been lost. He’s one of many dedicated journalists who recognize that a once proud profession has been undermined by a corporate ownership more interested in proselytizing a political ideology than upholding the public’s interest, a newspaper’s traditional role.
Indeed, Quebecor’s Sun Media has spread its right-wing tentacles into its newspapers and broadcast outlets to espouse its agenda and silence voices of opposition. The chain’s newspapers are filled with articles that spread the gospel and barely reflect the communities they purport to cover.
Centralizing of functions such as subscription services and advertising has eliminated scores of jobs at Sun Media publications and disconnected the publications from the communities they are supposed to serve.
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For interviews or more information, contact Martin O’Hanlon (email / 613-867-5090) or Alec Ross (email / 613-572-3182).
Campaign for National Director, CWA/SCA Canada
To: CWA/SCA Canada Locals From: National Elections Committee
Re: Campaign for National Director, CWA/SCA Canada Dear Local Officials,
You are being officially notified of the election for the position of National Director of CWA/SCA Canada.
Under election rules approved by the National Representative Council, the campaign period starts immediately and ends at 12 noon EDT on Thursday, June 2. The voting period starts at 12:01 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 2, and ends at the close of business in the national office in Ottawa on Thursday, June 23.
Votes will be collected by the National Elections Committee and counted on June 24-26.
The results will be announced on Monday, June 27.
During the campaign period, union funds, staff and other resources shall not be used in support of any particular candidate. Locals must provide equal treatment to both candidates in terms of making websites, bulletin boards, etc., available for election material. For example, if a local decides to create an area on its website for posting of messages of support, it must communicate that to both candidates.
The email addresses for the candidates are:
Ron Carroll ronc1@localnet.com
Martin O’Hanlon mohanlon@cwa-scacanada.ca
The election will be conducted by mail except for those locals that indicated they would conduct balloting in-plant before the deadline, which was at 12 noon EDT today.
The National Elections Committee will distribute updates on the election process as required.
If you have any questions about the rules for the campaign, please contact the National Elections Committee through the national office in Ottawa:
CWA/SCA Canada Unit 7B – 1050 Baxter Road Ottawa, ON K2C 3P1 info@cwa-scacanada.ca 613-820-9777 1-877-486-4292 Fax 613-820-8188
CANDIDATE STATEMENTS:
Martin O’Hanlon |
Ron Carroll |
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Deadline deal averts strike at Windsor Star
Windsor Typographical Union | CWA Canada Local 30553
A tentative deal reached between three unions and the Windsor Star mere minutes ahead of a Friday midnight strike deadline scored all-around thumbs up in ratification votes yesterday. The three-year collective agreement mostly preserves an enviable early-retirement provision that new owner Postmedia Network wanted to abolish. It was that stance at the outset of talks early in the new year, along with what amounted to a proposed wage freeze, that galvanized 230 union members and led to a 96-per-cent strike vote in late March. Brian Beaumont, vice-president of the Windsor Typographical Union (WTU) and chair of its bargaining committee, says these were a “tough set of negotiations given the economic times.” Postmedia, which last year purchased newspaper assets from a virtually bankrupt Canwest, made it clear “it did not want to move forward with any wage increases.” In the end, he says, “We got the best deal possible and that’s what we told our members (on Sunday).” The WTU, with 72 workers in the mailroom; the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents staff in the newsroom, advertising and business office; and the Communications Energy and Paperworkers (pressroom) voted 100, 93 and 100 per cent respectively to ratify the contract that contains modest wage increases. David Esposti, the CWA Canada staff representative who assisted the WTU in the joint-council negotiations, says the 60 part-time hopper feeders are the big winners. While all full-time workers get a $1,000 lump sum in lieu of a first-year increase (followed by 1.0 per cent in year two and 1.5 per cent in the third year), they get a lump sum of $500 plus a one-per-cent wage increase in the first year. The other major victory for the part-timers, says Esposti, is that they retain their guaranteed minimum shift of four hours, which Postmedia wanted to trim to three, amounting to a 25-per-cent pay cut. “By the end of this three-year contract,” he says, “WTU members will be making more than $17 an hour.” Esposti says the “elephant in the room” during the four days of mediation last week was the early retirement provision, which allows employees qualified to retire at age 60 to receive half pay, full benefits and pension contributions until age 65. Under the new arrangement, which is now in effect for all future contracts until existing employees have exercised their rights, retirees will receive 45 per cent pay and full benefits for four years and pension contributions for two years. In addition, says Esposti, the employer-funded pension plan contributions increase by 25 cents in year two and a similar amount in year three, bringing the total to $15 per shift. All three unions saw gains, including a night-shift premium that goes from $14.50 to $15 in year two; vision care increases $25 to $275 every two years; and sons- and daughters-in-law are now included as immediate family for three-day bereavement leave entitlement. Esposti says there were several contract language changes that benefitted the WTU and one that retained the union’s jurisdiction but gave the employer a break on overtime rules. The last two collective agreements at the Windsor Star were achieved within minutes either side of a strike/lockout deadline. This agreement will expire at the end of 2013.
The Perils of Postmedia: News staff out, managing editor in, at Edmonton Journal
Source: albertadiary.ca – By David J. Climenhaga
This post also appears on rabble.ca.
“The Press” … back in the day when the Edmonton Journal was a great newspaper. Below: soon-to-be Journal managing editor Stephanie C
oombs, former Journal publisher Linda Hughes, Colonist founder Amor de Cosmos.
Just when it didn’t seem like another drop of blood was left to squeeze from its various Alberta stones, Don Mills, Ont.-based Postmedia Network Inc. pushed another five senior newsroom employees out the door of the Edmonton Journal on Friday.
The carnage at the Journal included two veteran copy editors, two graphic artists and a National Newspaper Award winning photographer.
Reports from Alberta’s deep south indicate a similar number of newsroom staffers were made to walk the plank at the Calgary Herald about a week earlier.
The situation at the Journal is actually worse than it appears at first glance, however, since not included in the casualties listed above are a veteran newsroom administrative support worker, gone from the building the same day after decades on the job, a talented young reporter who recently quit in disgust at the lack of support for journalistic effort, the newsroom’s Web and social media guru, who also quit, and a significant number of distribution employees.
Several other respected Journal reporters, editors and executives had already departed either during a round of layoffs and packages last fall or soon thereafter. Together, insiders claim these departures leave the paper with only about a dozen city-side reporters to cover the news in a city of close to a million people.
Possibly related to this, an announcement is expected tomorrow of a newsroom managerial reshuffling that is said to include the addition as managing editor of Stephanie Coombs, late of the Ottawa Citizen and more recently city editor of the self-evidently unhyphenated Victoria Times Colonist.
Ms. Coombs’ coruscating trajectory follows the path across the cosmos described by the Journal’s recently appointed editor in chief Lucinda Chodan, who is also a veteran of the once-great Victoria newspaper founded by Amor de Cosmos in 1858. That paper was known in those pre-media non-network days as the Daily British Colonist. For his sins, Mr. de Cosmos was briefly premier of British Columbia.
Probably more important to the decision-makers at Postmedia, however, was Ms. Chodan’s history at the Edmonton Sun, which some time ago went down the same dreary path now being trod by the Journal’s weary and diminished editorial staff.
Interestingly, some Journal insiders assert the latest bloodletting will leave the city room with a staff-to-management ratio of about two to one – that is, half a dozen or so senior editors to supervise about a dozen front-line newsroom workers.
At the risk of flogging a dead horse, anyone who has served any time in the newspaper business understands that this kind of staff cutting usually improves the bottom line in the short term at the expense of the quality of the journalistic product over time. The effect of this phenomenon is one of the key reasons for the decline of the Canadian newspaper industry, which the newspaper executives who made these foolish decisions inevitably blame on the Internet.
The desire for short-term gains regardless of cost at the metaphorically named Postmedia may be related to the corporation’s parlous financial state, described last month in the company’s own Financial Post publication as the effect of a combination of non-recurring charges related to cost-cutting and “declines in print advertising.” However, a series of acquisitions and other business decisions made over several years by owners including Southam Inc., Hollinger Inc. and Canwest all contributed to this doleful state of affairs.
Certainly, Postmedia President and CEO Paul Godfrey was quoted as saying in the same FP story that “debt repayment and cost management will continue to be priorities in the ongoing transformation in our business.” And so it would seem!
Postmedia may be extremely anxious to cut costs to make its stock more attractive, since it is “imperative” for the company to sell shares “if it wishes to remain a Canadian newspaper publisher under tax laws,” the FP story explained. “Under the law, advertisers are permitted to write down ad expenses spent on advertising with Canadian newspapers.”
Alas for Postmedia, its current owners are made up “primarily of U.S. hedge funds and banks that are former creditors of Canwest Global Communications Corp. The group bought the assets after the media conglomerate filed for creditor protection and was forced to sell.”
This all has remaining Journal employees on their knees nightly praying to whatever deity they worship that someone will buy the Journal and somehow return it to its salad days, when it had the reputation as the best newspaper between Vancouver and Toronto – or at least between Kamloops and Medicine Hat.
Lending credence to their fevered hopes is the fact that Linda Hughes, the Journal’s respected former editor and publisher who retired in 2006, was last year appointed to the board of Torstar Corp., publishers of the Toronto Star. As readers of this blog know well, the Star is the last great newspaper still publishing in Canada.
At least once before in recent years, Torstar looked at the Journal as a potential addition to its stable of newspapers.
Will Ms. Hughes and the Torstar Boys ride to the rescue of the beleaguered Journal? Tune in next time for another exciting episode of the Perils of Postmedia!
Employees form union at MBS radio in Saint John
Source: cmg.ca
The majority of employees at three Saint John radio stations have signed cards to join the Canadian Media Guild (CMG). The stations are K-100, 98.9 Big John FM and 93 CFBC, all owned by Maritime Broadcasting System (MBS).
“My colleagues and I love radio and enjoy working together,” says Gary Stackhouse, the host of the “Big John” morning show and one of the first employees to sign a union card. “We look forward to improving our working lives and making the case for better local radio in Saint John.”
The CMG has filed the union cards with the Canada Industrial Relations Board and is seeking immediate certification of the union so that it can begin bargaining a first collective agreement. Under federal labour law, a group of employees can receive union certification without a vote if more than 50% of the members of the proposed bargaining unit have signed union cards.
“We are delighted to welcome our Saint John colleagues into the Guild family,” says Carmel Smyth, national president of the CMG. “It is inspiring to see a group of workers come together and make the decision to improve their lives by joining the union. Working in private radio can be incredibly rewarding and also very challenging and we’ll be there to help this group enjoy the best of it.”
The Canadian Media Guild represents 6,000 workers across Canada at eleven media organizations, including CBC/Radio-Canada employees in Saint-John and workers at CJRC, a Cogeco-owned radio station in Gatineau, Quebec. The CMG’s parent union, CWA/SCA Canada, co-ordinated the organizing campaign at MBS in Saint John and represents workers at the Saint John Telegraph-Journal.
$2.5-million pay-equity plan approved for Gazette workers
Source: cwa-scacanada.ca
Montreal Newspaper Guild | CWA Canada Local 30111
A pay-equity plan that has finally been approved at The Gazette will see about $2.5 million in back pay and penalties doled out to workers.
David Wilson, the CWA Canada staff representative who has been involved with the pay-equity file in Montreal since the beginning in January 2000, says workers who were “grossly underpaid” will now be properly compensated, some as much as $50,000.
Clerical jobs were the source of some of the greatest discrepancies, says Wilson. Pay increases range from one to 20 per cent and are retroactive to Nov. 21, 2001, the original deadline for The Gazette to comply with provincial legislation. The payouts include a five-per-cent penalty the company was assessed each year past the deadline.
The province’s Pay Equity Commission has just given its stamp of approval to the plan, which was thrashed out over more than 10 years.
The employer-employee committee now has to begin a maintenance process, which must be completed by the end of this year. Wilson says this is necessary because new technologies and ways of doing things constantly alter the nature of jobs. After 2011, companies will have to do maintenance to the plan at least every five years.
He says CWA Canada Locals, particularly in Ontario which has pay-equity laws, need to keep up to date on changes in the workplace. “All those Locals should be doing maintenance because there’s money sitting there for their members.”
Wilson, who has the most pay equity expertise of any staff in the union, encouraged Locals to contact him if they would like some guidance on the matter.
Literally hundreds of hours were spent on pay equity in Montreal, he says. At the outset, the committee evaluated 73 jobs and had to construct a rating system that would pass muster with the commission.
Those sessions bogged down in 2003 when The Gazette “threw up roadblocks” with complaints to the commission and appeals to the courts, says Wilson.
Many companies put the process on hold in 2006, when it was thought the legislation would be revisited. “A lot of employers were hoping the legislation would be vastly changed or eliminated,” says Wilson. It wasn’t.
The committee at The Gazette restarted the process last August and concluded two weeks ago, says Wilson. The rating system they had devised was considered deficient by the commission, which then sent an employee to work with the committee to modify the plan to its satisfaction.
It could take some time to track down everyone who’s entitled to receive a payout, says Wilson. He cites the example of the Reader Sales & Service phone room (it closed in 2008) where many workers came and went over seven years.
The raises aren’t going solely to women. Wilson says some males who work in female-dominated departments such as the business office, will be getting an increase.
We must defend photojournalism
Source: mediaunion.ca/
One of the worst consequences of the economic hard times that newspapers have faced across North America has been a renewed attack on the craft of photojournalism.
More and more newspapers have demanded that reporters take photos and video.
Here in B.C. some of our community newspaper photographer members have been laid off, others have been offered tech change buyouts. Reporters have become reporter-photographers. Unfortunately we have limited tools in these collective agreements to fight this. At the Sun and Province reporters have been given cameras and told to shoot video — something we are grieving because of better language in the PNG contract.
The “value” of a good photograph seems to have been diminished in the eyes of our bosses. They just don’t seem to get the importance of what photographers do.
Un
Here’s something I wrote for the Local 2000 newsletter a few years ago that remains both true and relevant:
A great photograph captures the essence of a story in a way that ten thousand written words cannot. A great photograph can define an entire era.
For those of us who lived through the Vietnam war, and even for many who did not, the iconic memories of that conflict are two images captured by photo journalists: The Saigon police chief shooting a prisoner in the head or the girl running in terror, her skin burning after a napalm attack.
The job of every photojournalist is to capture a picture that is “worth a thousand words” to their fellow human beings who are hard wired to understand their world through images, as well as written and spoken language.
Taking a great photograph is part serendipity, but like every art or craft it also requires lengthy training and experience. A professional photographer performs her or his work so well that we see only the image — the skill of obtaining and presenting it are hidden by the craft.
Unfortunately this means that some people become convinced that “anyone can do it” and that there really is no skill at all. “All you need to do is just point and shoot” the ads tell us.
Anyone who writes for a living knows that many people think “anyone can do that” as well. And, of course, anyone can write something. But that does not mean anyone can function as a journalist.
One role of a union is to defend the standards of its members’ professions and crafts. That is why it is necessary for the Local 2000 to do all that it can to promote and defend photojournalism. It is in the interest of our photographer members, but also in the interests of everyone who cares about quality journalism.
Over the years, one of the mechanisms we bargained into some collective agreements, such as that at the Sun and Province newspapers, was a ban on “dual use” reporter/photographer classifications. This ban is intended to protect photographers and to ensure that some people can focus exclusively on telling the story through images. It is also intended to ensure that reporters can focus on what they need to do in order to get their story.
Sometimes the union is asked to allow the use of reporter/photographers even when it is clearly not allowed in a collective agreement. Most often the company does this in an attempt to save money, but sometimes our own members try to sidestep the ban because they do not consider the wider implications.
It is important for every union member to understand their collective agreement and to learn why certain provisions are in place. It is critical for us to defend our crafts.
Gary Engler