Here’s our take on The Gazette’s television commercials. Please share it (on Facebook or in other ways). You can also sign our petition or show your support in other ways.

From Brian Dore of Franklin, Ind.:

I’ve often wondered when the non-Montreal-based conglomerate known as CanWest would “sanitize” the Montreal aspect of The Gazette.

A city’s newspaper, regardless of the size of the city, is a “printed spokesperson” for the city! Every city I’ve ever known of has prided itself on its paper - whether or not everyone always fully agreed with some of the content, editorial tone, or coverage of events or news.

The Gazette has been no different, throughout its long history, and has stood the test of time for newspapers, right up there with its francophone counterparts in the print media - Le Devoir, La Presse, and yes even Le Journal de Montréal!

To de-Montrealize the Gazette is not only journalistically wrong, it is a slap in the face to the many loyal Montreal readers who turn to the Gazette as a source of their daily news.

Now living in Indiana for the past 12 years, I cannot get home delivery of The Gazette, as you may well understand! (By the time the paper carrier got here it would be old news!)

But every morning I read it online, in the same way I might read the printed version at the kitchen table, as I did for many years living in Montreal.

I want my daily news of the city of my origins, Montreal, and The Gazette, even online, “delivers”!

Sterilizing the paper, I feel, will lead to “sterilized” news; nothing more than some generic, one-size fits all, attempt at bringing the news to readers.

And to move newspaper jobs, duties, and otherwise out of town, or farmed out overseas ….I consider that a kick in the ass, to go along with the slap in the face, to Montrealers!

I’ve signed the petition.

Vive la Montreal Gazette …. a truly Montreal institution - and leave it where it belongs, CanWest!

This letter was sent to us by Allan Aitken:

A couple of comments: most newspaper owners have a surfeit of ego, and many of them are also bright. The former applies to Leonard, but instead of brains/leadership/competence/etc. he has arrogance and uneasy creditors. As a businessman and a proprietor he’s a dud.

Back in ‘02, when he introduced national editorials, I wrote to complain. He was too busy to reply, bit I thought you might like to see the letter.

“For almost forty years we have subscribed to The Gazette. We read it diligently, and most days enjoy doing so. However, our loyalty is more complex. Because much of The Gazette is written in Montreal, and it is published here, we feel possessive about it. In fact, it is distinctly our paper. Towards the Globe & Mail and the National Post our attitude as readers is less familial.

“Certainly The Gazette has flaws. It also has great strengths, among which we include intelligent and perceptive editorials, provocative columns, and of course the Aislin cartoons. All originate here, and all are components of your local identification.

“The recent decision to run so-called national editorials is baffling. What is the problem that needs to be fixed? The members of your editorial board are manifestly able to produce high quality pieces with contexts ranging from local to international, and from topical to timeless.

“If you believe that the editorials packaged in Winnipeg are better, run them as an addition for a reasonable time and ask your readers which they prefer. We have already decided.

“To retain talented journalists you must allow them to write. If you dislodge them by importing editorials from elsewhere in the owning group, some of them will leave. The result will be lower costs, and if this is the motivation please show us enough respect to come clean.

“For a while longer we will continue to subscribe, at least from habit, but don’t take our attachment for granted.”

Once the petition reaches say 10,000 names I suggest the organizers should describe it in a letter to the editor. If it’s not printed, my next suggestion is to buy a small ad in the Globe. I’d gladly contribute to the cost.

Maintaining local content in the Gazette is far more important to Montreal, and not just to Anglo Montreal, than the once a year car race.

Does what’s happening at The Gazette bother you? Let your voice be heard.

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.

Contract talks at The Gazette wrapped up today amid media reports that a senior editor at CanWest’s news service was trying to line up journalism students to file stories to the newspaper in the event of a strike.

David Wilson, the CWA Canada staff representative who is leading the negotiations, says there was some progress over the last two days of bargaining for Editorial and Reader Sales and Service, although the employer still wants to eliminate union jurisdiction over work performed at the CanWest-owned newspaper.

Wilson says two days of conciliation are scheduled to begin Oct. 20, but the parties might be back at the table next week.

Meanwhile, management appears to be making preparations for a work stoppage. Macleans.ca blogger Martin Patriquin reported last night that “CanWest News Service Editor-In-Chief Gerry Nott did the obvious thing: he called up the local university and offered to make scabs out of several journalism students.”

Patriquin notes that “Concordia Department of Journalism Director Mike Gasher, meanwhile, is none too pleased with the soliciting of his young charges.”

He quotes from an email Gasher sent to students:

“It’s come to my attention that some Concordia journalism students have been approached by CanWest to replace regular newsroom staff should there be a strike or lock-out at The Gazette. While that decision is ultimately up to you, I would caution you to think very carefully about accepting such an offer as it is a form of scab labour. Not only could it harm your reputation and the reputation of our department within the journalistic community, it interferes with the ongoing collective bargaining process between Gazette journalists and their employer.”

The CBC has since picked up the story, which is also spreading in the blogosphere.

The executive of the Montreal Newspaper Guild, in a communiqué to members on Wednesday, expressed its “disappointment that the employer has effectively ended talks for a new contract for 37 members of the Advertising unit by tabling (last Friday) what it calls a ‘final offer.’ The Guild has offered to meet with the employer to discuss Advertising issues further. It is important to stress that the employer has not withdrawn its attempt to claw back the union’s jurisdiction over work in advertising by proposing a clause that is so convoluted it would have the same result.”

Members of the three bargaining units, who gave their negotiators a strike mandate on Sept. 28, were advised by the MNG executive to remove all personal effects from the workplace.

A byline strike and work-to-rule campaign went into effect today at The Gazette as staff protested management’s stonewalling in contract negotiations.

Mona Leroux, president of the Montreal Newspaper Guild (MNG), says the negotiating team suggested the job action after talks for Editorial and Reader Sales and Service (RSS) “bogged down” yesterday over the issue of jurisdiction. Two days of bargaining for the Advertising unit commenced this morning.

“Management is refusing to sign a collective agreement that contains jurisdiction language and will not talk about any other issues,” says Leroux.

The CanWest-owned Gazette is attempting to eliminate union jurisdiction over work performed by its employees and wants to merge job functions in some departments.

The bargaining team was handed a powerful strike mandate on Sunday when members voted 100 per cent (Editorial), 98 per cent (RSS) and 59 per cent (Advertising) in favour of doing so.

The 181 employees in the three units have been without a contract since June 1. The union and management have been in a legal position to strike or lock out since early summer.

This is the first time in recent memory that the union has asked its members to work to rule, says Leroux.

The byline strike by journalists is the first since a Quebec labour tribunal, in a landmark ruling five years ago, restored their contractual right to that form of protest. In December 2001, dozens of Gazette journalists attracted international attention — and management’s wrath — when they withdrew their bylines to protest CanWest’s plan to run identical “national editorials” in most of the daily newspapers the corporation acquired with the takeover in 2000 of the Southam empire.

Gazette journalists can withhold bylines ‘as they see fit,’
Quebec arbitrator rules

When the Gazette’s editor-in-chief ordered all staff to restore their bylines, the MNG launched an immediate grievance under the Employee Integrity section of the collective agreement, which an arbitrator upheld in October 2003. The ruling confirmed that reporters, photographers, artists and others at The Gazette have the “absolute right” to control use of their bylines and credit lines on stories, photos and other works, with the exception of analyses, columns and opinion pieces.

“Just about everybody pulled their bylines today,” says Leroux.

Late this afternoon, the work-to-rule campaign was having an effect, says Leroux, who was hearing reports of some projects being cancelled because staff were refusing to work unscheduled shifts.

The Guild has called upon members to “follow the existing contract conditions to the letter. … strict observance of hours of work: seven hours, plus one hour of meal break, and no overtime unless it’s approved in advance by your department supervisor.”

When bargaining resumed Tuesday for the Editorial and RSS units, lead negotiator David Wilson, a CWA Canada staff representative, was hopeful that the strong strike mandate would move talks along. But there was no progress by the second day so talks broke off Wednesday afternoon.

Guild jurisdiction over work performed by its members has been a critical issue ever since Gazette management laid off 45 RSS employees in June and exported their work to a CanWest call centre in Winnipeg. The MNG is also in the process of grieving the transfer of other work (layout of some pages and the Driving section, electronic photo desk functions, business office duties) to non-unionized CanWest facilities in Hamilton and Winnipeg.

Contracts for all three bargaining units “clearly prohibit the assignment of such work either to employees of the same employer not covered by our collective agreement or to employees outside The Gazette,” says Leroux.

The union is seeking a three-year deal with annual wage increases of six per cent, a major boost in vehicle allowance from $700 to $900 a month, plus improvements in vacation time, vision care and night shift differentials.

The team bargaining on behalf of employees at The Gazette in Montreal heads back into contract talks tomorrow armed with a powerful strike mandate.

The combined result of voting by members of three bargaining units of the Montreal Newspaper Guild (MNG) saw 86 per cent supporting a strike mandate for their bargaining committee. Reader Sales and Service (RSS) employees were 100 per cent in favour; Editorial was 98 per cent; and Advertising 59 per cent.

Mona Leroux, president of the MNG, says the union executive is “very pleased” with the results. “This sends a strong message to the employer that we are united in our determination to achieve a fair collective agreement.”

David Wilson, the CWA Canada staff representative who is leading negotiations for the Local, agrees. “Up to this point, they (management) haven’t taken a lot of our issues seriously. We’re hoping this mandate will help move things along.”

There have been only four days of bargaining since early summer, when the two sides were in a legal position to strike or lock out. But there’s been little movement on management’s part, says Wilson.

The CanWest-owned Gazette is attempting to eliminate union jurisdiction over work performed by its employees and wants to merge job functions in all three bargaining units.

The Guild has made it clear it will not concede jurisdiction or accept any takebacks from the employer.

“We feel confident we have the backing of the membership,” when contract talks resume tomorrow and Wednesday for Editorial and RSS, and on Thursday and Friday for Advertising, says Wilson. “It was clear at (Sunday’s) meeting that people are onside and they’re ready to take a stand.”

The 181 Guild members have been without a contract since June 1. The union is seeking a three-year deal with annual wage increases of six per cent, a major boost in vehicle allowance from $700 to $900 a month, plus improvements in vacation time, vision care and night shift differentials.

Gazette management laid off 45 RSS employees in June and exported their work to a CanWest call centre in Winnipeg. The union is grieving the transfer of other work (layout of some pages and the Driving section, electronic photo desk functions, business office duties) to non-unionized CanWest facilities in Hamilton and Winnipeg.

Contracts for all three bargaining units “clearly prohibit the assignment of such work either to employees of the same employer not covered by our collective agreement or to employees outside The Gazette,” says Leroux.

Management also wants to reclassify reporters, photographers, artists and critics as “journalists” so that they can be forced to provide multi-media content for the online Gazette and CanWest’s internet portals. What it means, says Leroux, is that reporters and critics would have to take photographs and video footage, while photographers would have to write articles.

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.

Meeting agenda

1. Approval of previous minutes
2. Financial report
3. Brief grievance report
4. Bargaining update: Classified, Editorial, Advertising, Reader Sales and Service
5. Mobilizing
6. Update on Office Situation
7. Other Business
8. Adjournment

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.