2016.06.02 | CWA Canada Local 30130 | Halifax Typographical Union
Halifax journalists urged to stand firm
in face of Herald’s ‘insulting’ offer
CWA Canada is urging its striking Halifax newsroom workers to stand firm in the face of an “insulting” contract offer that torpedoed mediation talks on Wednesday.
President Martin O’Hanlon, in a message to the 57 journalists and support staff who were forced out on a defensive strike on Jan. 23 by The Chronicle Herald, said he shares their anger and bitter disappointment.
The Halifax Typographical Union’s bargaining team, he said, did everything it could to break the stalemate and get a deal. It “went well beyond its comfort level” in presenting a “major concessionary offer that addressed the company’s key demands.”
“Any fair-minded employer would have jumped on the offer,” said O’Hanlon. Instead, the Herald’s response was a “worse offer than previously, lowlighted by even more layoffs” which proves “beyond doubt” that CEO Mark Lever is not “interested in an agreement unless the union is emasculated.”
“This may be a long, hard battle,” said O’Hanlon, “but it is a battle we cannot afford to lose. We are fighting the good fight for quality jobs and quality journalism and you have the full support of the national union, the international, and all your newsroom colleagues … across the country.”
CWA Canada staff representative David Wilson, the lead negotiator for the HTU, called the Herald’s contract offer “unworkable and insulting.”
“The employer says it needs to get the concessions that our union has given at other newspapers across the country and I say, ‘What concessions?’.” Outside of a few tweaks to allow for more flexibility, said Wilson, there have been no concessions at other newspapers.
The HTU said in a news release that the company wants to lay off almost half of the 57 newsroom workers and drop the hourly pay rate by 20 per cent. It would move the work of 18 seniors editors — many of whom have more than 25 years of service — outside the bargaining unit, with a salary decrease of $20,000 - $40,000 and no guarantee of continued employment.
HTU President Ingrid Bulmer told members they are no longer bound by a commitment to the mediator during the five days of meetings to suspend secondary picketing, leafleting, boycotts and social media criticism.
Members are being asked to double down on their efforts to convince businesses to stop advertising in the Herald and readers to suspend subscriptions until the labour dispute is over.
Meanwhile, even more resources will be poured into the HTU’s strike publication, the LocalXpress.ca, a full-service, free news site that is now accepting advertising and public donations to cover expenses of production.