Improved labour relations at daily
newspaper pave way for early contract settlement
Sydney
Typographical Union | TNG
Canada Local 30460
A sea change in labour relations
at a Nova Scotia daily made the latest round of bargaining
the smoothest sailing the Local has ever experienced,
says its president.
"This is the first time we've been able to achieve
an agreement without a lot of kicking and screaming.
It really reflects the tenor of labour relations" at
the Cape Breton Post, says Steve MacInnis, who's about
to sign the three-year contract that won 91.6-per-cent
approval from the membership in a ratification vote
last month. The pact provides for salary increases
totalling seven per cent and "the best pension
increase we've ever had," he says.
Another first was reaching an early
settlement. "We'd never before settled prior to
a contract expiring and without at least going to conciliation," says
MacInnis. Historically, the Local, which has about
70 members in all departments at the newspaper, has
encountered rocky negotiations and went on strike twice
in the 1990s.
Anita Delazzer came on board as publisher during the
last round of bargaining in 2004, says MacInnis. Those
negotiations were the first conducted since the paper
had been purchased by Montreal-based Transcontinental
Media from CanWest Global.
Delazzer's "very good relations" with staff
has greatly improved management-labour relations these
last three years and set the stage for amicable bargaining,
says MacInnis. Although the membership was leery of
trusting management, the bargaining committee found
that Delazzer "is willing to work on things and
can see both sides of an issue," and eschews a
confrontational approach to negotiating, he adds.
It was because of that easygoing relationship that
MacInnis met informally with the publisher in November
to discuss negotiations to renew the collective agreement
that was to expire on Jan. 31. He says he found her
very open to discussing the framework of their upcoming
talks and expressed a willingness to engage in a give-and-take,
collaborative process.
The union had served notice three years ago that this
round of bargaining would focus on improved benefits,
says MacInnis. In the end, the company agreed to increase
its contributions to the union's pension plan by 25
cents per shift in the first year, and 50 cents in
the second and third years.
The union, in turn, agreed that anyone hired after
the effective date of the agreement (Feb. 1, 2007)
would have to join the company's pension plan. However,
the company agreed that it would co-operate in a union
review of the two defined-contribution pension plans
and if, in the end, the membership preferred the union
plan, the new hires would be transferred to it.
MacInnis says the union's pension review committee
will make its recommendations prior to this contract's
expiry on Jan. 31, 2010. A major consideration that
will likely tip the membership toward the union pension
plan, he says, is that the employer pays 100 per cent
of the contributions, whereas contributions to the
company pension plan are split evenly between employee
and employer.
In addition to the salary increases — 2.0 per
cent this year, followed by 2.5 per cent in 2008 and
2009 — management agreed to bump up the gasoline
allowance from 34 to 37 cents per kilometre.
Overall, says MacInnis, everyone
is happy with the new deal. "Both sides are
feeling pretty good about it."