UPDATE 09 February 2006

Non-union TV station refuses to run ad
CHUM-owned A Channel, a non-union television station in Victoria, turned down the Guild's ad. It is about to begin a two-week run on CH, the unionized station owned by CanWest Global. VIEW VIDEO

01 February 2006

Guild overcomes CanWest newspaper publisher's refusal to run organizing ad

Victoria Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild | TNG Canada Local 30223

A Guild-sponsored quarter-page ad that appeals to non-unionized media workers on Vancouver Island appears in today's Victoria Times-Colonist despite the publisher's initial refusal to run it.

Chris Carolan, president of the Victoria Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild (VVING), says no reason was given when the paper first rejected the advertisement — and $3,000 in revenue — last week.

Pressed by the Local executive for an explanation, publisher Bob McKenzie said he was concerned that the ad was aimed at, and would offend, advertisers. He eventually accepted the ad after the Guild agreed to alter the text but not the message.

"Once you come up with an ad, it should be a walk in the park," says John Hutchinson, the Local's Grievance officer who was assigned the task of placing ads in their employer's paper and on CH TV station, both of which are owned by CanWest Global. "Because the Times-Colonist and CH are union shops and we were targeting non-union shops, we figured there'd be no problem. We were wrong."

The Local's executive, which decided at its January meeting to reach out to employees at non-union newspapers, TV and radio stations and other media-related businesses, chose to take a "front-door" approach to organizing. VVING has had the occasional enquiry from people who work at CHUM TV or one of the island's 18 community newspapers owned by Black Press.

The ad — topped with the large, bold headline "Do You Need a Union?" — contained a number of questions: "Are you employed at a non-union newspaper, magazine, radio station, TV station, advertising agency, print shop or creative design shop? Do you want a fair contract of employment? Does your boss treat you fairly? Are you treated with dignity and respect? Is there someone in your workplace to help you if you have a problem or issue with the boss? Do you have a pension plan? Dental plan? Health benefits plan? Life insurance?"

Hutchinson, an advertising sales rep at the newspaper, says McKenzie "thought there were implications in the ad that these employers were unfair.

"We didn't subscribe to that argument. The (VVING) executive was PO'd, to say the least, that someone would try to censor us. Our position was that we were paying for this ad — it wasn't a freebie — and the paper wouldn't censor other customers."

The executive considered publicizing the censorship, but feared that would put the focus on the dispute rather than on the ad's message.

"We decided to alter the wording to deal with the publisher's concerns without damaging the integrity of the ad," says Hutchinson.

What had been questions in the ad were turned into statements: "We have negotiated contracts that provide wage rates, working conditions and a procedure that provides a final resolution to workplace issues/concerns ... The contracts can cover such things as Health Benefit Plans, Dental Plan, Life Insurance and Pension Plan. Issues dealing with fairness in the workplace ... can be addressed."

But, he says, McKenzie still wasn't satisfied. "The publisher felt that the perception was that the Times-Colonist was supporting the organizing drive. We solved that by adding a line at the bottom of the ad that says it's paid for by the Guild."

The CanWest-owned CH television has accepted the McKenzie-approved ad and is in talks right now with VVING regarding cost and scheduling, says Hutchinson.