08 August 2003

Gazette units ratify contract
after interminable negotiations

Montreal Newspaper Guild | TNG Canada Local 30111

CanWest Global's proposed transfer of jobs to Winnipeg head office made for long and arduous negotiations involving two units of the Montreal Newspaper Guild.

At a late-July meeting attended by 72 per cent of the 25 members of the two units (Business Office and Switchboard at The Gazette), the vote to ratify the new contract was unanimous.

"Although members are not happy about the transfer of jobs to Winnipeg, they are pleased with the outcome of the bargaining," says chief negotiator John Belcarz, president of the Local.

Two key issues had tied up the negotiators for 19 months: A proposed transfer of work to Winnipeg and a planned reorganization for both departments.

In the end, the Gazette offered employees an opportunity to take a buyout package which obviated proposed layoffs. Some members will be able to move into the Reader Sales & Service department where, according to the employer, a transfer of customer-service work to Winnipeg has been delayed again, this time until early next year.

Belcarz and fellow negotiators Stanley Kawai, Pat Greenwood, plus alternates Janet Murphy, Rosemary McCarten and Amelia Moran, managed to secure for the two units a one-per-cent increase upon ratification, and two per cent in each of the following two years. The contract runs until 2006.

Belcarz says the one-per-cent increase could easily have been two, but the Guild and the company are currently involved in pay-equity discussions, with the next meeting scheduled for Aug. 13. The company argued that it will have to reserve financial resources for the pay-equity settlements. Many of the 335 members of the Guild will be entitled to those payments, which will be retroactive to November 2001.