Roger Stonebanks, a long-standing Union activist with the Victoria- Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild, died on Thurs. Jan. 15, 2026.
Roger was the Joint Council of Newspaper Unions Co – Chairperson at the Times Colonist for many years and was deeply respected and trusted by the other Union’s leaders. In his role he led a cohesive group to achieve common language and monetary gains for all the members of the respective Unions at the Times Colonist
Roger retired in the fall of 2000 but remained engaged and followed the ongoing issues at the Times Colonist up until the summer of 2025.
Roger was instrumental in the Guild securing the sacred work jurisdiction/ contracting out language (Article 1, Section 4) in the Sept. 6, 2001 Nicholas Glass Arbitration award, when Roger gave undisputed evidence of the history of the language tracing back to the 6-month 1974 strike. Roger explained the intent of the language was both an internal protection that current and future Guild work was to be performed by Guild members only. Also, the language was created to protect current and future Guild work from leaving the building to be performed by other than Guild members.
This, along with the Company attempt to gut our jurisdictional language resulting in a 9-week strike (Sept. 3, 2002 – Nov. 5, 2002) by all the members of the Joint Council of Newspaper Unions, saw the language remain in the Victoria-Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild Collective agreement, thereby ensuring Guild members ongoing employment at the Times Colonist.
Guild members past and current owe Roger an incredible debt of gratitude for his unwavering dedication to Union activism.