From a now-former customer service representative:

Yesterday, and without fanfare, marked the end of an era at our beloved Gazette. The 45-plus Customer Service employees charged with ensuring that your paper was delivered on time and either through the mail-slot or between the doors, at the top of the stairs or at the side door, in plastic or without an elastic band, earlier or later, with the flyers or without the flyers etc., have been laid off; our jobs sent to a centralized call center for all Canwest publications in Winnipeg. Although this labour dispute did not get the same airtime as the Canadian Auto Workers’, it certainly deserves at least footnote. For some, working at The Gazette put us through University, for others it was the household’s main source of income. Either way, these wonderful and patient people deserve to be recognized for decades of service to the ever hard to please Gazette readership. Although this transition was designed to be seamless and perhaps secret, it doesn’t seem right to let this moment pass without marking it’s passing in the very Newspaper we worked for – Monday to Friday 6:30 AM to 5:00 PM and from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Saturday and Sunday.

Maybe it’s because I lost my job, but I feel that it is unnatural that a Winnipegian take over responsibility for an institution in our city. Unfortunately, I could not think of a tangible problem that will not be solved by the internet or google maps – but that doesn’t change the overwhelming feeling that there are certain things only a Montrealer can understand about Montreal. There may be some glitches in the system, such as the 411 directory assistance representative, in an unknown location, (”sorry sir, I am not at liberty to divulge the location of our call center.”) being unable to locate a listing for a ‘billetetrie’ until I replaced the French pronunciation with an awkward English one. But I am certain that these momentary delays will pass quickly, like so many introductory offers. It seems that this is the trend for all call centers. As one radio talk-show caller put it – some people are just happy that these jobs are staying in Canada.

Finally, I would like to thank all of the people that I have worked with over the past 4 years. For listening when someone needed to vent, for supporting each other through this period of uncertainty, for facing the layoffs professionally and most importantly for proving that what you do is as important as who you work with.

To our readership: if you were patient and polite while we tried to resolve a problem, stopped your paper for a vacation and donated it to charity, took the time to move a subscription to a hospital for a friend or loved one, gathered the papers piling up outside your neighbour’s house and called to tell us they were away or just plain started a subscription, please join me in thanking the people at The Gazette Customer Service and in wishing them the best of luck – merci et bonne chance!

For those of you who have threatened to cancel because the carrier was late in a blizzard, demanded to speak to a supervisor just because you didn’t like the answer you got, lied about not having a subscription to try and get a deal, insisted that your Gazette be delivered to a different address every day or were just plain rude, go ahead, show those Winnipegians what Montrealers are made of.

Justin Levy

Former Customer Service Representative (RSS)

After a full day of negotiations and some key concessions by Gazette management, the Montreal Newspaper Guild agreed last night to settle its grievances over the transfer of work in the Reader Sales and Services call centre to Canwest’s Reach Canada call centre in Winnipeg:

• Severance pay will be increased: equivalent 4.5 weeks’ salary for every year of service, up to a maximum of 78 weeks, for ALL employees affected by the lay-off notice, with a minimum $1,000 severance. (The 4.5 weeks/year formula is the equivalent of the last editorial buyout)
• The Gazette will now respect seniority in hiring eight new positions in RSS. Job applications will be reopened for two days, ending at 5pm on Tuesday, June 10. RSS employees who received lay-off notices can apply for one of the new positions. Should a candidate have the proven competence, he or she may displace an incumbent employee with lower seniority.
• The Gazette has agreed to extend the duration of the rehiring list to 24 months (so laid-off employees will be given priority for any new jobs that open up).
• The Gazette will maintain its contributions to life, medical and dental benefits for three months following lay-off.
• Any employee 55 years or older will be entitled to the employer’s retirees’ benefit plan.

The company agreed to the Guild’s demand that this deal constitute a settlement of grievance, and not a new collective agreement for RSS. The company has agreed to bargain a new collective agreement for those who remain in RSS in the coming weeks.

Finally, this settlement does not affect the jurisdiction language in the collective agreement.

Hearings were held yesterday at the Labour Board where the Unfair Labour Practice charges and the merger application were heard before a commissioner. The Guild and the Company agreed to have the commissioner rule on the issue immediately.
The Company was found guilty of Bad Faith with regards to the response to a letter from “anonymous.”

The commissioner has yet to rule on several other charges of bad faith against the company. In particular the letters to RSS members that deal with the “offer of settlement” and “final proposal”. We expect to have the decisions next week. Once we hear from the commissioner we will know the legality of the “final proposal”.
The commissioner also found the Guild guilty of an Unfair Labour Practice because we insisted that RSS, Editorial and Advertising bargain together. “We’re guilty for trying to unite and fight for our membership” Guild President Mona Leroux said.
The Guild had also filed an application to merge RSS, Editorial and Advertising into one bargaining unit. The commissioner ruled against the application so merger at this time is not an option. The commissioner’s reasons for this decision as well as all the others will follow soon.

Now that the legalities are becoming clearer the Guild intends to open discussions with the Company to see where we go from here.

The following letter was delivered by courrier to Gazette employees today. For the Guild’s responses to some of these issues, see our FAQ.

Dear fellow Gazette employee,

As you know, a very difficult decision was made this year: to transfer our reader service activities to Canwest’s Reach Canada call centre in Winnipeg. This decision was not taken lightly, given that it means the lay-off of 35 of our fellow employees, most of whom are members of the Reader Sales and Service bargaining unit.

While I normally would not comment on bargaining during the process, I am very concerned that all of us are getting into a situation that no one wants.

There are two key business measures of the performance of any newspaper - advertising linage and circulation volumes. Our advertising linage has declined every year for the last 5 years and is down a total of 17%. Circulation has also declined every year and is down 9% on home delivery and 40% on single-copy sales.

Employees in the affected departments know these facts of life as well as I do. There is no reason to think that we will be able to reverse these trends during the life of the agreements that are soon to be negotiated. Times are changing and so is the economic and competitive reality The Gazette is facing.

We must concentrate on our core newsroom and advertising activities if we are to remain in business. The services offered by Reach Canada allow those of us in Montreal to focus our efforts on content, sales and marketing.

Last week, we made a Final Proposal to renew the collective agreement for the RSS bargaining unit, for the benefit of the employees who will be laid-off as well as the 22 members who will remain on our payroll in Montreal. This offer includes substantial improvements over the severance provisions of the collective agreement for those who will be leaving. It is the most generous offer The Gazette can possibly make and, without doubt, the best offer RSS members will see.

We sincerely hope that it gets ratified. However, it may not, and that would leave the parties the far less desirable option of a strike or lock-out.

If a lock-out or strike of the RSS unit were to occur, it would be your right to cross the picket line, since your units would not be on strike or locked out. It would equally be your individual contractual right to refuse, as a matter of conscience,to cross a legal picket line of any union engaged in a legal strike or lock-out with The Gazette. However, neither the editorial nor the advertising units have a legal right to strike at this time.

Anyone who decides not to report to work should clearly understand a few things: you may not be permitted to resume work until a strike or lock-out is over; a strike or lock-out could be very long (since work would have moved to Reach Canada); and the Company would have the right to replace all employees on a “sympathy” strike with other workers while they remain off the job.

I can only repeat: the decision has been made and the Reader Service phone room is moving to Winnipeg. Our preference has been to negotiate a fair financial deal for those losing employment; we do not want a war.

As mentioned above, times are changing and The Gazette and the Guild wil be approaching the bargaining tables with important Editorial and Advertising issues. But those issues will all be subject to discussion and compromise and should be solved on the basis of common sense. In my opinion, none of the issues involving Editorial or Advertising justifies strike action and the Company has no intention of locking you out.

Important decisions will have to be made soon by all parties involved in the present round of negotiations. It is my fervent hope that we can make the decisions that are in the best interests of all parties, both in the near and long terms.

Very sincerely,

Alan Allnutt

Publisher

Some notes about this letter:

• Though Mr. Allnutt talks about declining advertising revenue, he neglects to talk about the financial situation of the paper as a whole. According to Canwest’s financial figures (which don’t break numbers down by individual newspaper), the publishing division is not only profitable, but that profit is growing.
• One of the main reasons cited by readers in their decision to unsubscribe from The Gazette is the declining quality that has resulted from continued cuts to staff in editorial and service departments. Moving customer service to a cheap-labour call centre that couldn’t care less about readers is only going to make the situation worse.
• The Gazette has not offered buyouts to RSS staff. The severance offer that the employer has proposed ties the Guild’s hands unnecessarily.
• The Guild believes that customer service is, in fact, a “core activity” that workers in Montreal should be focusing on.

June 5, 2008

To All Guild Members;

There have been quite a few questions that have come to the Local executive’s attention as well as a number of rumors. We hope to answer some of those questions and dispel the rumors.

Is there going to be a lock-out?

We don’t know. That is up to the employer. If the employer decides to lock-out RSS then no one in the department will be allowed to go to work. The other bargaining units have language in their contracts that allows each person the right not to cross a picket line. As union members and co-workers we expect that no one will cross a picket line. The language in your agreements state that once you have made the decision not to cross a picket line you cannot go back to work until the dispute is resolved. Everyone who refuses to cross the line will receive strike/lock out pay.

This dispute is not just about 45 jobs in RSS. This fight will affect all of you. It just so happens that the fight starts in RSS. There comes a time where you need to draw a line in the sand and the Local believes now is that time. There exists a mindset by some that the employer won’t touch us or the other units never supported us so why should we support them or the Local caters to Editorial. Those days are gone. You can be part of the future or live in the past. We hope members will chose to be part of the future. We either stick together or fall apart piece by piece.

Can the employer use replacements for the duration of the dispute?

For those that refuse to cross the picket line the answer is yes. For those that are locked out the answer is no. Replacement workers can be used for those in support of the picket line. However, once the dispute is settled and the picket lines are taken down you will return to the job you had before the dispute. You cannot lose your job because you support a picket line.

The Gazette will suffer in the event of a lock out. As has been the case in all other disputed at newspapers in Canada, we expect advertisers will not want to advertise in a paper employing “scabs” and many subscribers will cancel until the dispute is concluded. The company wants to avoid a dispute as much as we do according to JP.

How much is strike or lock out pay?

Strike and Lock out pay are the same. It starts with $200 per week then rises to $300 per week after four weeks and for the duration. The Local has the option of topping up this weekly pay from its defence fund. The only requirement to receiving strike or lock out pay is that members perform a minimum number of hours per week on the picket line or other assigned duties.

The Union should have taken the employers final proposal to the RSS members for a vote

The Local believes what the employer has done is illegal. The employer has refused to bargain with the committee and is attempting to bargain directly with RSS members. The Local can’t legally ask members to vote on an offer that is not legal and therefore not enforceable. Unfair Labour Practice charges against the company are being heard today (June 5th) for this and several other reasons. In addition, the final proposal contains the following paragraph…. “It is understood that the Guild will withdraw all grievances and contestations related to the above mentioned changes and/or layoffs and agrees not to file any new such grievances and/or contestations.”

This will handcuff the unit for three years or more and it will be open season on the remaining RSS jobs and will infect the other units.

Why didn’t the company simply offer buyouts to RSS staff?

The Local asked the company and was told “NO.” It is within the company’s right to offer buyouts if it wishes.

What is the Local doing about the eight new jobs in RSS?

The Local has grieved those positions and will take the matter to arbitration if necessary. The company has completely ignored the layoff and recall language which states layoffs are by seniority and recall is by seniority. The company has cherry picked people from RSS to fill the eight new jobs creating a situation where senior members are being laid off while junior members are not, an obvious violation of all of our contracts.

What other legal avenues is the Local pursuing?

On Monday June 2, 2008 an arbitrator heard evidence from the Union and the Company on the merits of a safeguard order. We have contract language that states that in the event an arbitrator’s ruling can’t undue what the union believes is a violation of the contract, in this case contracting out RSS, the company is prohibited from proceeding until after an arbitrator has heard the case and rendered a decision or bargaining/conciliation has concluded and the parties either lock out or strike. The Local has filed for arbitration over the transfer of work to Winnipeg and is awaiting dates.

The other part of this legal strategy is the application to merge RSS, Editorial and Advertising bargaining units into one.

There is strength in numbers. Since the application for merger is before the Labour Board, the board has the right to suspend negotiations until the application is dealt with. In other words, if the board suspends negotiations the company loses its right to lock-out and the union loses its right to strike. The suspension of bargaining and the Unfair Labour charges are being heard together today. A win on the suspension of bargaining combined with the safeguard order prevents layoffs, lockouts or strikes. All working conditions will be frozen until the issues before the board are heard.

We’ll keep you posted

Your executive

CBC’s Radio Noon call-in show today focused on the issue of journalistic independence and media diversity. Host Anne Lagacé Dowson talked to Marc Edge, author of Asper Nation.

Among the callers is Charles Shannon, former Gazette copy editor and Montreal Newspaper Guild vice-president, who talks about buyouts and how Canwest shapes your local news.

Listen to the interview in Real Audio format: Part 1, Part 2.