11 August 2006

All smiles in Alberta as 3 daily newspapers sign new agreements

Media & Communications Workers of Alberta | TNG Canada Local 30400

TNG Canada/CWA members at three Alberta dailies have finalized new collective agreements that contain significant gains in wages and benefits.

At the Red Deer Advocate, where the Guild represents upwards of 175 employees throughout the operation, a six-year deal has just been signed. Members will see annual pay increases of 2.5, 2.5, 2.75, 2.75, 3.0 and 3.0 per cent between March 1, 2006 and Feb. 29, 2012.

Luis Rufo, the Local's secretary-treasurer, had a hand in negotiations at all three newspapers. He says that, in all cases, there were major advancements for Guild members and no takebacks.

At the Advocate, it took almost a dozen negotiating sessions over four months, but the bargaining team achieved significant improvements in shift differential, overtime rates, vehicle allowances and employer contributions to pension plans.

More important, says Rufo, they were able to eliminate lower job classifications in the mailroom and boost starting pay for new employees throughout the building. Additionally, inside advertising sales representatives will now be entitled to bonuses; there will be better training for mailroom workers; and employer contributions to pensions for production workers switches from a dollar amount to a percentage.

In what has to be a new record for a TNG Canada Local, it took a mere 30 minutes of negotiations to reach agreement on a five-year deal for the three compositors who work at The Lethbridge Herald. At a meeting in June, the entire membership voted 100-per-cent in favour of ratifying the agreement, says Rufo.

The Lethbridge contract, which expires July 31, 2011, contains increases in pay (two per cent in each of the five years), shift differentials, employer contributions to the pension plan, and improved vacation entitlements.

It took about seven meetings to hammer out an agreement at the Medicine Hat News and its sister publication, the weekly Prairie Post, says Rufo. The 75 Guild members there, who work in all departments except the pressroom, ratified a five-year contract that expires March 20, 2011.

Members will see their pay increase 1.5 per cent this year; 2.5 per cent in 2007, and two per cent in each of the remaining three years of the contract. As in Red Deer, lower pay grids were raised throughout the newspaper, there were improvements in shift differentials, vehicle allowances, vacation, and bonuses for inside sales reps in classified advertising.