03 OCTOBER 2006

Osprey Media
Kingston settlement shifts attention
to St. Catharines, Sudbury

Kingston Typographical Union | TNG Canada Local 30204
North Bay Newspaper Guild | TNG Canada Local 30241
Northern Ontario Newspaper Guild | TNG Canada Local 30232
Peterborough-CWA | TNG Canada Local 30248
Sault Ste Marie Typographical Union | TNG Canada Local 30746
St. Catharines Typographical Union | TNG Canada Local 30416

With members at the Kingston Whig-Standard on Sunday voting 71 per cent in favour of ratifying a new collective agreement, that's four down and four more Guild-represented dailies to go for Osprey Media.

The 25 newsroom staff in Kingston made the largest sacrifice in terms of scheduling and job security, with management gaining unfettered use of freelancers. Nor would the company budge on including a provision against contracting-out of jobs, which would have prevented Osprey from outsourcing more circulation and classified advertising work to its non-unionized call centres in Niagara Falls and Sarnia.

The only consolation for the six bargaining units that grudgingly accepted the three-year agreement was annual pay increases of 2.25, 2.0 and 2.25 per cent.

Debbie Newton, president of the Kingston Typographical Union, says publisher Fred Laflamme adopted his usual pressure tactics. Dismissing protests that it was unfair bargaining, he called staff meetings on Thursday to present the company's final offer three days before the union was to do so.

Now that Kingston is settled, Osprey can turn its anti-union attention to St. Catharines, where the conciliation stage is over and mediation begins on Oct. 19. Should mediation fail, the two sides will be in a free (strike/lockout) position at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 22.

Only 21 Guild members remain at the St. Catharines Standard after Osprey decimated the circulation, classified and composing departments, laying off 22 long-time employees and transferring the work to its call centres that are staffed by low-paid workers who receive no benefits.

A grievance by the St. Catharines Typographical Union over the layoffs in defiance of a no-contracting-out clause in the contract was settled on Sept. 20 when Osprey agreed to improved severance packages.

TNG Canada staff representative David Esposti says the laid-off workers "signed off quite willingly" on the agreement that increases the maximum severance pay to 36 weeks from 26.

With outsourcing effectively off the table, financial issues are now at the heart of the negotiations in St. Catharines.

At the Sudbury Star, where two contracts expired on April 30, the two sides are scheduled for conciliation on Oct. 11 and 12.

Denis St. Pierre, president of the Northern Ontario Newspaper Guild, says his 52 members (in advertising, business office, circulation, editorial, maintenance and mailroom) are concerned about contracting out, especially after Osprey laid off all nine pressmen last year and began printing the newspaper at the North Bay Nugget. Little was achieved during two days of negotiations in July and, when two more days of talks set for the end of August were cancelled, the Guild elected to proceed directly to conciliation.

The Sault Ste Marie Typographical Union, which has 135 members in advertising, circulation, newsroom and mailroom at the Sault Star, is about to begin bargaining on three collective agreements that expired Aug. 31.

The Sault Local enjoys strong community support, as evidenced during a five-city protest in February that kicked off the TNG Canada-sponsored Keep Our Newspapers Local campaign. The Sault and Sudbury publishers, angered by their unionized workers' boisterous noon-hour demonstrations that attracted lots of media attention, responded by promising readers and advertisers that newspaper jobs would remain in the community.

Linda Richardson, Local president, says her members are concerned about job security, having had one layoff in advertising in June. The newsroom, especially, is worried about more work going to freelancers, another form of job outsourcing.

Otherwise, she says, the membership is looking for improvements in their pension plan, wages and mileage, given the soaring price of gasoline.

An improvement in mileage coupled with a formula to increase the amount when gas prices rise was one of the provisions in a new collective agreement ratified by the 25 members of the Guild Local who work in all departments at the Osprey-owned Cobourg Daily Star and Port Hope Evening Guide.

Nigel Sones, business agent for the Local, says the "pretty conclusive" ratification of the three-year agreement came on June 23, seven days before the contract was set to expire. The deal was arrived at after three days of negotiations and gives employees annual pay increases of 2.0 per cent, a signing bonus of $150 and improvements in vision care and dental benefits.

In April, the Local reached a similar deal for its 21 Guild members who work in advertising, circulation, composing and editorial departments at the Lindsay Daily Post. The topper, however, was that they are the only Guild members so far to have wrung a job security clause out of an Osprey daily. The Post has guaranteed that, for the life of the three-year contract, there will be no job losses in classified or circulation as a result of outsourcing to the call centres.

Meanwhile, Dan Seguin, president of the North Bay Newspaper Guild, is gearing up for negotiations to renew their contract, which expires at the end of this year. Although he has yet to survey members at The Nugget about their concerns, it's clear he's assuming job security will be high on the wishlist.

Seguin isn't releasing any details just yet, but says he plans to launch a "Local Survivor" mobilization campaign this fall that he hopes will energize members to the same extent the February protests did.

Earlier this year, TNG Canada Director Arnold Amber reported after a meeting with Michael Sifton that the Osprey CEO showed little interest in developing a better relationship between management and the union to prevent further labour strife. "He still maintains that policies regarding each paper are determined locally," said Amber.

It remains to be seen whether the hundreds of pledge cards signed by customers during the Keep Our Newspapers Local campaign will influence the publishers at those daily newspapers yet to reach settlements with Guild members.

Osprey, now operating as an income trust, dominates the small-town Ontario newspaper industry with its more than 60 publications. Since last fall, dozens of unionized long-time employees have been laid off and their work outsourced to the call centres in cuts that Osprey claims are chain-wide cost-saving measures.