Today, Montreal Gazette employees are launching a petition asking Canwest to stop outsourcing the production of our newspaper outside Quebec as part of the company’s ongoing efforts across Canada to centralize the work performed for its “local” newspapers. We are engaged in a struggle to keep the “Montreal” in the Montreal Gazette and we are asking for your help.

The Montreal Newspaper Guild is currently in contract negotiations with the company, and they are demanding changes that will give them carte blanche to move the production of our newspaper to non-union shops in Hamilton, Ont. and Winnipeg. The company began doing this last year in violation of the contract, and there has already been a noticeable drop in quality.

We believe a local paper should be produced by local, qualified professionals, and that Montrealers want The Gazette’s profits invested in making the newspaper better instead of being shovelled to Canwest’s head office in Winnipeg.

The petition reads as follows:

Montreal Gazette employees are fighting to preserve a vibrant English-language daily newspaper produced in Montreal to serve Montrealers.

The Gazette’s owners, Winnipeg-based Canwest Inc., are moving more and more of The Gazette’s editorial and customer-service operations out of the province of Quebec in violation of the employees’ collective agreements. Now, in contract negotiations, Canwest is demanding the removal of impediments to outsource any remaining work outside of Quebec in order to facilitate lay offs in Montreal.

These moves threaten to diminish Canada’s diversity of voices, whittle down local input and stifle The Gazette’s vital role of covering local news and reflecting Montrealers’ values, concerns and culture. The Gazette has been a proud Montreal institution since 1778 and its readers deserve better than Canwest’s plans to further downsize, centralize and outsource to maximize profits.

The newspaper is operated by Canwest, however it is the public that will ultimately decide whether it will tolerate a “local” newspaper produced elsewhere. Gazette staff are appealing to the Montreal community to tell Canwest to keep the “Montreal” in the Montreal Gazette.

You can sign it here.