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29 April 2005
Editorial employees fight off take-backs
at Irving-owned Fredericton daily
Fredericton
Typographical Union | TNG
Canada Local 30664
Editorial department employees at The
Daily Gleaner have unanimously ratified a new contract that gives
them modest improvements in wages but a sense of security
for half a decade.
In addition to a signing bonus of $300,
the new five-year agreement provides for salary increases
of two per cent in each of the four years and 2.5 per cent
in the fifth and final year of the agreement, which runs
until Oct. 31, 2009. The first-year increase is retroactive
to Nov. 1, 2004.
"Overall, I was pleased with the negotiations. But
I was disappointed that we still don't have any sick leave.
If our members get sick, they have to deduct time off from
vacation until short-term disability kicks in after three
days," says Steve Llewellyn, who has been president
of the Local since 1997.
David Esposti, the TNG Canada staff
representative who helped the Local negotiate the new deal,
which was ratified on April 16, says that "negotiating with the Irvings has always
been a struggle." The newspaper is owned by the powerful
Irving family, which has a virtual monopoly on media and
other industries in New Brunswick.
"Having a five-year agreement provides for some security
against Irving take-backs, for which they're well known," says
Esposti.
This time around, he says, the employer
had two take-backs on the table, both of which were eventually
withdrawn.
Management at the Gleaner wanted
to eliminate the premium — currently
$6 per shift — for working nights, says Esposti. This
would have affected a majority of the 19 Guild members who
work in the newsroom (the only unionized department at the
daily newspaper). For some Guild members, it would have represented
a loss of $1500 a year in income. As a comparison, the premium
for working nights at The Windsor Star is now $14.50
per shift.
The company, says Esposti, was also trying to get around
paying overtime by eliminating the definition in the contract
of a day's work as being 7.5 hours. The employer, he says,
wanted the ability to schedule people to work up to 12 hours
a day without paying overtime.
Agreed-upon language changes in the contract specify that
journalists at the Gleaner have the unilateral right to withdraw
their bylines or credits at their discretion. This has been
a major issue at Canadian newspapers owned by CanWest Global
Corporation, where journalists have withheld
their bylines to publicly protest the conglomerate's unpalatable editorial
policies.
The Fredericton contract also dictates that, if substantial
changes are made to a reporter's copy, editors must make
every reasonable effort to notify the reporter.
There were other minor improvements in the agreement, including:
- Bereavement Leave: Time off for immediate family members
increases from three to five days; time off for extended
family increases from one to three days.
- Mileage: Unionized
employees will now receive the same amount as managers
and non-unionized employees (currently 32 cents per kilometre).
- Flex Benefits: The employer will pay half the cost of
any premium increases for basic dental and medical coverage
from 2006 to 2009.
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