The Ottawa Newspaper Guild (ONG),
on Tuesday at the end of two days of fruitless mediation,
announced that it would conduct a strike vote tomorrow
from 3 to 8 p.m. Both parties were in a legal strike/lockout
position as of 12:01 a.m. today.
ONG president Lois Kirkup says the company's latest
proposal is a two-year deal with wage increases of
1.0 and 1.5 per cent (at a time when Statistics Canada
reports that national inflation is running at 3.4 per
cent). In addition, says Kirkup, management is also
demanding that writers and photographers give up control
of their credit/bylines.
“Our mandate is to at least protect our members’ standard
of living,” Kirkup says in a news release. “The
company has said the Citizen is profitable. It
is clear they do not care about their workers. They
do not believe in fairness.”
The collective agreement, which expired on July 20,
covers 214 employees in editorial, circulation, financial
services, building maintenance and in-house printing.
There have been a total of 10 days of negotiations
and more talks are scheduled for Sept. 22 and 23.
The Guild is determined to win significant wage increases
for its members, especially those in editorial, who
have been increasingly overburdened as the newspaper
reduced staff numbers.
The membership has rallied
behind its bargaining team. About 75 members attended
a meeting Sunday, when the negotiators outlined their
position going into mediation the next morning. Noon-hour
marches around the Citizen building on Monday and
Tuesday this week featured members clad in their
Guild-issue black T-shirts, sporting buttons that
proclaim: "More for Less? NO!"
Aside from the bylines issue,
negotiations from the outset have been "about the money," says
David Esposti, the CWA Canada staff representative
who has been assisting the Local in bargaining.