28 February 2006

Osprey publisher threatens legal action
over yanked bylines

Guild counters that boss's memo constitutes
direct bargaining with members

Kingston Typographical Union | TNG Canada Local 30204

The Kingston Whig-Standard is threatening legal action against its editorial staff who have withheld bylines and photo credits since Feb. 15 to protest an attempt to erode the newspaper's quality and working conditions.

In a letter yesterday to Debbie Newton, president of the Kingston Typographical Union, publisher Fred Laflamme says the TNG Canada/CWA Local is "disseminating false and misleading information regarding bargaining issues publicly via the TNG website and through press releases."

"As a result of this false information," he writes, "the newsroom employees are participating in an illegal strike with the concerted withdrawal of bylines. We are currently obtaining advice on our legal options."

In a follow-up memo to all staff distributed today, Laflamme cites a news release issued by TNG Canada on Feb. 22, and says a statement about contract proposals regarding the use of freelancers is inaccurate. The publisher then goes into detail about what transpired at the bargaining table in early February.

What it amounts to, says Newton, is the publisher attempting to bargain directly with Guild members. The Local is exploring its own legal options in this regard, she says.

All members of the editorial bargaining unit agreed to withhold photo credits and bylines the same day that Guild colleagues at four other daily newspapers owned by Osprey Media staged noonhour protests against the company's job outsourcing to call centres.

Kingston's contract stipulates that Guild members can withhold bylines or photo credits whenever and for whatever reason they choose.

Although it was a way of supporting the TNG Canada-sponsored Keep Our Newspapers Local campaign, the main reason for the job action, says Local vice-president Paul Schliesmann, was to warn management off "waging war on working conditions" in the newsroom.

The Whig recently opened negotiations to renew the contract, which expired on Jan. 18, with proposals that would see the newspaper have wide-open use of freelancers and the ability to force Guild members to work 75 hours over two weeks, on a schedule determined by the editor. Staff could lose their entitlement to consecutive days, or weekends, off.

It was these proposals that so alarmed the newsroom staff, which numbers about 25, says Schliesmann, an editorial writer at the paper. "This (withholding bylines and photo credits) is our statement to say 'We're mad. You're not going to take these rights away from us'."

Removing the Guild's jurisdiction over editorial work would allow the paper unfettered use of freelancers. It's just another form of outsourcing, says Schliesmann.

The possibility of more newsroom layoffs — there were two in the last year — has activated a normally placid Guild membership, says Schliesmann.

"It's never happened before. We've never had a strike" at the Whig-Standard, but members are prepared to take such drastic action if they have to, says the Local's VP.

David Wilson, the TNG Canada staff representative who's been assisting the Local with negotiations, says the two sides "are miles apart." Talks are set to resume March 22-24, with job outsourcing as the major issue. Since November, it has cost a half dozen Kingston Guild members their jobs in classified advertising and circulation customer service.

Osprey, which dominates the small-town Ontario newspaper market with its more than 60 publications, including 21 dailies and dozens of community newspapers, set up call centres in Niagara Falls and Sarnia last year and staffed them with poorly paid part-time workers who receive no benefits. Then the company began eliminating advertising and circulation jobs held by Guild members, despite collective agreements that bar contracting out of work.

The first round of layoffs last fall in Kingston and St. Catharines, and notice of impending cuts in Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Sudbury, led TNG Canada/CWA to estimate that up to 100 jobs could be eliminated at the nine Osprey dailies where the Guild has members in classified and circulation departments.

The Keep Our Newspapers Local campaign, which kicked off Feb. 15 with information pickets in four cities and the byline withdrawals in Kingston, has certainly caught the public's attention. Presidents of Locals at the St. Catharines Standard, Sault Star, North Bay Nugget and Sudbury Star report that hundreds of readers, advertisers and employees have already signed cards pledging their support for the campaign.

In Kingston, opinion columns, commentaries and reviews are all appearing in the paper without a writer's logo or name at the top. Local photos carry no credits. The protest also forced the paper to end a policy that made it unique among Canada's English-language dailies: signed editorials.

The absence of photo credits, reporter bylines and columnist logos in the Whig-Standard is "really noticeable," says Schliesmann and "people are calling and writing to the paper about it."

Entertainment writer Greg Burliuk, a 32-year veteran and the first reporter at the Kingston Whig-Standard to sign a union card, has been a very popular restaurant reviewer for 13 years. Advertisers, says Schliesmann, are particularly upset that his restaurant column isn't in the paper.

But the Guild Locals, four of which have to bargain new collective agreements this year, are not going to let up on Osprey, which so far has eliminated only union jobs in its efforts to reduce labour costs and increase profits.

The company has also extended its outsourcing to composing rooms. A second round of layoffs in St. Catharines on Feb. 17 eliminated 14 jobs, 10 of them in the pre-press/composing department. The Guild members' work is being transferred to the non-union Welland Tribune plant.

An arbitration hearing over the St. Catharines layoffs is set for March 7.