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21 March 2007
Pressroom workers unanimously ratify
'exceptional' contract,
win total wage increase of
18.7 %
Halifax Typographical Union |
TNG Canada
Local 30130
Pressroom employees of Halifax Herald
Ltd. today ratified an "exceptional" contract
that boosts their wages a stunning 18.7 per cent over
four years.
Darren Pittman, the jubilant though exhausted president
of the Halifax Typographical Union whose bargaining
team clinched the tentative settlement at 11:30 last
night — half an hour short of a midnight strike/lockout
deadline — reports that his members voted 100
per cent in favour of the deal this afternoon.
The 13 press operators and an industrial
mechanic will see a pay raise of 7.6 per cent in the
first year, retroactive to July 1, 2006, followed by
5.6 per cent in the second year, and 2.75 per cent
in each of the last two years of the collective agreement
that runs until June 30, 2010.
The 13.2-per-cent increase in the first two years
of the contract is, in effect, a catch-up for the workers
whose wages have been frozen for 13 years, says Pittman.
There were several other significant gains in terms
of early retirement, severance, job security and wage
protection, he adds.
This is the first collective agreement the employees
have negotiated since leaving the Communications Energy
and Paperworkers union and joining the TNG Canada Local
last June.
Arnold Amber, Director of TNG
Canada/CWA, was exultant: "This
is one hell of a first contract!"
"It is rare," he says, "that
unionized members make up so much in one contract
and rarer still that it's done in a first contract
through a new union."
Amber was effusive in his praise for the pressroom
workers who refused to be intimidated by the company's
repeated threats of a lockout if they did not grant
the employer major concessions:
"Congratulations to all
members of the (bargaining) unit who knew what they
wanted in their contract and were strong enough to
get it."
Pittman says the members didn't
flag for one moment through all the months of bargaining.
In fact, he notes, "I've
had to keep them from wildcatting (striking illegally)."
The pressroom workers were
infuriated last year when the family-owned company,
which has been publishing the Halifax
ChronicleHerald since 1875, revealed its demands for huge concessions
from staff who had only two years earlier won management's
fulsome praise for doing such a "fantastic" job
of installing a state-of-the-art offset press, upgrading
their skills and modernizing the operation.
Halifax Herald Ltd. had initially proposed a six-year
deal with no wage offer and wanted the workers to give
up some jurisdiction, holiday pay and retirement incentives.
It wound up threatening to lock them out if they insisted
on keeping an early retirement clause that had existed
in the contract for 10 years, says Pittman. The employees,
who in October voted 100-per-cent in favour of strike
action if necessary, were equally adamant that they
would withstand a lockout, too.
Management's bargaining team, says Pittman, maintained
its take-it-or-leave-it stance right up until Tuesday
afternoon. And then two things happened that brought
them back to the bargaining table with a significantly
altered attitude.
A news release issued by Pittman early in the day,
in which he revealed a management negotiator's threat
to sell the new presses if the company couldn't cut
labour costs via major contract concessions, was picked
up by the local media and served to embarrass the employer.
"We find it hard to believe that the economic
viability of a company such as the Herald, which employs
more than 350 people, rests solely on the shoulders
of 14 staff members," Pittman said in the release. "They've
told us the company is making a profit so why the threats?"
But what "really kickstarted the talks" was
a speech by David Esposti, the TNG Canada staff representative
who was assisting the Local in its negotiations, to
members of the management bargaining team.
Esposti, says Pittman, drew a very clear picture for
management of what the company could expect if it made
good on its threat to lock out the pressmen. Workplace
tensions in the unionized departments would increase
to the point that the newsroom would become a tinderbox,
there would be a backlash from the community and the
newspaper could lose advertisers and subscribers.
Pittman says it was obvious
to everyone in the room that the management negotiators — none of whom
had ever been through a strike or lockout — had
failed to take into account the ramifications of locking
out staff.
Amber, citing Esposti's years
of experience as a negotiator, says he's well known
for finding "inventive solutions
to tough issues."
"Over the years," says Amber, "David
Esposti has delivered very good contracts for union
members, but this one is exceptional."
Pittman agrees, ticking off
the "wins" that
this new contract contains for his members:
- Rather than lose their
early retirement package, the 14 members will
see it enshrined for this and all future contracts.
The pension's monthly lump amount increases and,
for the first time, it will be indexed.
- The bargaining unit
will grow by four members. Two industrial mechanics
previously excluded from the unit will now become
members, and the company will be hiring two more
journeyman press operators.
- All members of the bargaining
unit will now have a severance package (in the
event of layoffs) that exceeds the legislated standard
and equals that of the editorial bargaining unit.
- Another first is that
pressroom staff will now have language ensuring
they won't lose their jobs due to technological change.
- Members will now, for
the first time, have a grievance procedure to
deal with contract violations.
- Four press operators
who did not have bumping rights now have them,
as well as wage protection if they're forced to take
a job in a lower-paying classification.
Halifax Herald Ltd., the largest independently owned
newspaper company in Canada, has been in the Dennis
family through several generations. Under Graham Dennis,
79, who took over as publisher in 1954, it has become
Atlantic Canada's largest circulation daily with 300,000
readers.
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