Delegates to council meeting to tackle
job slashing in newspaper industry
The recent and ongoing slashing of
jobs at major Canadian newspapers is expected to be
one of the more important items on the agenda at this
weekend's National Representative Council meeting in
Vancouver.
Arnold Amber, Director of CWA|SCA
Canada, says the delegates will discuss appropriate
responses to the continued hollowing out of editorial
and business departments at chain newspapers.
"This is very troublesome to us because we don't
agree with management's philosophy of cutting costs
to the detriment of local news coverage, of which there
is less and less. Nor do we believe that newspaper
chains are serving their local communities when they
transfer work to regional call centres," says
Amber.
The Toronto
Star just last week announced that it
would use layoffs and buyouts to cut 160 editorial
jobs, while at the same time launching three new specialty
websites.
Since the beginning of the year, notes Amber, another
round of buyouts at CanWest Global has cut about 200
people from its newsrooms across the country. In Montreal,
45 employees at the CanWest-owned Gazette face layoff
as the corporation attempts to shift Reader Sales and
Service jobs to its non-union locations.
"While the newspapers profess to be providing
service to their readers and advertisers, they don't
mention that they are moving circulation and advertising
jobs out of the city," says Amber.
Another important feature of the two-day semi-annual
council meeting will be introduction of a program called
The Way Ahead, through which the national union will
provide more support for its 27 Locals across Canada.
It calls for training, mobilization and increased involvement
in nationally co-ordinated initiatives to strengthen
the Locals and better deal with the rapidly evolving
nature of work performed by members in the media industry.
Delegates to the meeting will also be electing a secretary,
a treasurer and six at-large members to three-year
terms on the CWA|SCA Canada executive. Amber and Deputy
Director Martin O'Hanlon were both re-elected by acclamation
during the nomination period in March.
The remaining two positions on the executive are Canada
East and West vice-presidents of The Newspaper Guild.
The latter post is held by Scott Edmonds, the incumbent
who was acclaimed at the TNG sector conference at the
end of February. The new Eastern Canada VP will be
chosen in the TNG
elections during the six-day voting
period which begins Thursday. Members of CWA Canada
whose workplace is east of Manitoba will choose between
Barbara Saxberg, director of education for the Canadian
Media Guild, and Darren Pittman, president of the Halifax
Typographical Union.
All members of CWA Canada are eligible to vote for
candidates for the top TNG jobs: president, secretary-treasurer
and international chair.