25 May 2005

New Eastern VP a seasoned union activist

Jan Ravensbergen, acclaimed this month to succeed Percy Hatfield as TNG Canada’s Eastern Vice-President, has long been a familiar face at Guild gatherings, both national and international.

	Charles Shannon photos
	Jan Ravensbergen's is a familiar face at Guild gatherings, national and international.

The name is Dutch; Jan (pronounced "yahn") was actually born in one of the Netherlands’ last colonial outposts. That exotic fact aside, Jan spent his childhood in Pointe Claire, making him a Montrealer to his very bones.

For years he has been an Alouette season-ticket holder; the only home games he misses are those that conflict with ones played by his son, Robbie. Or maybe the occasional baladi performance by his wife, Claire.

But the point is that, like all Montreal sports fans, Jan hates to lose almost as much as he likes to win — highly desirable qualities in a labour leader.

Belying his youthful good looks — he’s only 50 — Jan has worked at The Gazette for a quarter-century and counting, much of that as a senior business reporter.

He has been a Guild activist virtually as long, serving for many years as chair of the Editorial bargaining unit of the Montreal Newspaper Guild (TNG Canada Local 30111).

Jan has paid his dues; in December 2001, he was first vice-president of the local when it was thrust into the national spotlight. CanWest Global Communications, the new owners of Southam Newspapers, moved to impose chainwide national editorials on their big-city dailies. This sparked a spontaneous rebellion among The Gazette’s journalists: a byline withdrawal, a public manifesto, heated exchanges with management at the newspaper and at chain headquarters.

Other locals also took up the fight, but Montreal continued to lead the resistance. The challenge was to ride the tiger, somehow channeling all that newly released energy productively (while avoiding retribution against Guild members who acted or spoke out).

Jan embraced that challenge, and did much in the process to shape TNG Canada’s response to the ugly face of media concentration. That a Senate panel is now wrestling with the issue is largely a result of his work.

That test, hard as it was, proved just a warmup. In 2003, Jan was thrust into a new role when cancer claimed the local’s president, John Belcarz.

Throughout John’s long battle, the work of the local hardly skipped a beat; it was during his final days in hospital that he learned the Montreal Guild had won its landmark challenge to company-imposed restrictions on when and why bylines could be withdrawn.

Under Jan as president, the local executive has been rebuilt, with new people brought in and a renewed emphasis on communicating with members.

It was no doubt this successful if painful transition that TNG Canada recognized when it elected Jan to its executive, first as a member at large and now as Eastern VP.