At a meeting yesterday, with publisher Alan Allnutt, the Montreal Newspaper Guild agreed to present the company’s latest contract proposals on Sunday, for a vote.
As a result, the General Membership meeting has been postponed, and in its place, two unit meetings will be held:
Main Unit: 11 a.m.
Advertising: 1 p.m.
Intercontinental Hotel, 360 St. Antoine West, Old Montreal (St. Antoine entrance)
The Montreal Newspaper Guild has been contacted by the conciliator and both sides have agreed to meet on Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, 2009. As a result, journalists have ceased their byline strike and photos and articles created by Gazette journalists once again have their names attached. This is done as a show of good faith on behalf of Gazette workers, and the byline strike may return if it becomes necessary.
The work-to-rule campaign remains in effect.
Beyond the bargaining meeting in January, the guild is also awaiting an arbitration hearing Feb. 19 to deal with the outsourcing of editorial pages to Canwest Editorial Services in Hamilton, Ont. If the guild is successful at proving that the move violates the current contract, all work that has been outsourced will return to the Gazette and be done by Gazette employees in Montreal.
The Guild wishes to thank members of the public that have overwhelmingly supported our cause, and urge them to continue to express their feelings about the deterioration of quality that is a direct result of job cutbacks and outsourcing.
The Montreal Newspaper Guild has called a general membership meeting for Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 at noon at the Intercontinental Hotel (360 St. Antoine St. W., corner Bleury), a meeting which will include a strike vote for the Editorial, Reader Sales and Service, and Advertising departments.
Contract negotiations are under way with the employer, and progress has been made on several issues, but key issues remain unresolved. Negotiations will continue on Sept. 30., and the Guild is looking for a strike mandate from its members in order to strengthen its bargaining position.
Though the vote would be for a strike mandate, it would not necessarily result in a strike. The Guild is hopeful that productive negotiations will continue.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
The Local asked the company and was told “NO.” It is within the company’s right to offer buyouts if it wishes.
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.
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