19 April 2006

Solid majority votes for 3-year deal
at Osprey newspaper

Peterborough-CWA | TNG Canada Local 30248

A solid majority of Guild members at the Lindsay Daily Post has voted to accept a settlement offer that gives them minor gains and no losses.

The three-year deal at the Osprey Media-owned newspaper provides for annual wage increases of two per cent and contains improvements in vacation, sick leave, vision care and pensions, says Nigel Sones, business agent for the Local.

"There were no takebacks and there were some gains," in the collective agreement that covers 21 Guild members in the newsroom, composing, retail advertising, circulation and classified advertising departments, he says.

The employer has also guaranteed that, for the life of the contract, there will be no job losses in classified or circulation as a result of Osprey's reorganization and establishment of call centres in Niagara Falls and Sarnia. Other Osprey dailies in Ontario, notably the St. Catharines Standard and the Kingston Whig-Standard, have seen Guild members in those departments laid off and their work shipped to the non-union operations.

In Lindsay, a small town near Peterborough, there was a good turnout of members for the vote on April 13, with 70 per cent deciding in favour of accepting the employer's offer.

Over three days of talks in February and March, following expiry of the contract on Jan. 22, there was one "stickler" that was resolved, says Sones, when the company agreed to a floating mileage allowance that is tied to the price of gas.

An interesting issue that arose, he adds, involved mandatory retirement, which is now illegal in Ontario. Management, says Sones, wanted to stop providing benefits and making pension contributions for employees who chose to work beyond age 65.

The union pointed out that it is legally obligated to responsibly represent all of its members and couldn't possibly agree to such discriminatory treatment for some. Once the negotiators made it clear that the matter would become a legal test case if the provision was forced upon them, "the employer backed off their proposal and we were happy with that," says Sones.