Labour Ministry orders membership
vote
on Osprey newspaper's final contract offer
Northern Ontario Newspaper Guild | TNG
Canada Local 30232
Management at the Sudbury
Star, a
daily newspaper owned by Osprey Media, just can't seem
to take 'No' for an answer.
The company, refusing to see a recent strike vote
as a repudiation of its contract proposals, made the
rare move of applying to the Ministry of Labour to
force a membership vote on what it calls its "final" offer.
The vote, to be held next Friday, March 2, is to be
supervised by the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
In late November, more than 80 per
cent of the Local's 50-plus members voted 93 per cent
against an offer of settlement presented by the company
following two days of mediation. That offer, says Denis
St. Pierre, president of the Northern Ontario Newspaper
Guild, contained major concession demands and did not
address any of the union's key issues, including job
security, severance, pensions, wages and vehicle allowances.
After making one change to
the proposed settlement — withdrawal
of language that would have allowed Osprey a free hand
in contracting out jobs to its non-union call centres — the
company presented it as a final offer to the bargaining
committee. Members, who work in all departments at
the Star, declined to vote on the offer at a meeting
at the end of January, choosing instead to hold a strike
vote, with 100 per cent of part-time workers and 63
per cent of full-time staff voting in favour.
St. Pierre says the company's attitude and conduct
during negotiations to renew the collective agreement
that expired last spring has disappointed the bargaining
team, which had decided to take a concilatory approach
to the talks at the outset in the hopes of avoiding
a labour dispute.
The Star does not have a great reputation in pro-union
Sudbury, he notes, with six lockouts/strikes over the
last 30 years. A four-month lockout by Osprey in 2002-03
proved quite disastrous, says St. Pierre.
Unfortunately, he says, "the
company has so far stuck to its autocratic approach,
which spurns real dialogue and negotiation for 'take-it-or-leave-it'
final offers."
If the members vote against
the company's final offer next Friday, the union
will try to convince the employer to return to the
bargaining table, says St. Pierre. The Guild is still
determined to negotiate a fair settlement and "we
don't want to proceed to job action unless we have
to."