The loss of a sports reporter and
three copy editors has ravaged the newsroom and will
most certainly affect the quality of the paper, says
Debbie Newton, president of the Kingston Typographical
Union.
With another two people gone
from advertising, "the
integrity of the whole bargaining unit has been decimated," says
David Wilson, the CWA Canada staff representative who
assists the Local.
With the desk staff pretty much halved, everyone's
wondering how they'll ever get the paper out on time
and properly edited.
"What we're hearing," says Wilson, "is
that the excluded personnel (managers) will be picking
up the slack, which is a big no-no." If that were
to happen, he says, "we will be grieving" because
management is not allowed to do the work of union members.
Wilson says Ron Lauren, who
has been publisher for about two years, "hates
unions. He has told Debbie that we're all spoiled.
"He's operating as if
there's no union and he's in for a big surprise."
Newton says that the surprise
layoffs are typical of the newspaper's management: "No one thought
out how they're going to get the work done." One
desker, she says, has agreed to work six-day weeks
for the next month.
She adds that "job prospects in Kingston are
very slim" for the laid-off journalists.
Newton notes that, at one time, the Whig-Standard
was a much respected daily that punched above its weight
when it came to winning journalism awards. Back then,
there were 60 to 65 people in the newsroom; today editorial
staff hovers at about two dozen.
The Local is about to go to arbitration over the layoff
in the spring of a customer service employee. That
job cut also was done without warning and, adding insult
to injury, the company kept on for the summer a non-union
student to do the work of the laid-off employee.