Photo: Tony Tracy, Canadian Labour Congress
Halifax Typographical Union (CWA Canada Local 30130) went on strike Jan. 23, 2016.
16.11.27 CBC News
Chronicle Herald says it's not trying to bust the union of striking journalists
16.11.27 StephenKimber.com
Mark Lever, Grant Machum and ‘Graham Dennis
isn’t around to save you anymore’
16.09.15 CBC News
Chronicle Herald shuts down its Cape Breton paper,
citing 'headwind of union sympathy'
16.09.07 Rank and File
Workers-run Local Xpress puts Chronicle Herald to shame
16.09.02 CBC News
Herald employees still waiting for resolution as strike passes 8th month
16.07.28 CBC News
Striking Chronicle Herald photographer recovering from picket line stroke
16.05.19 Globe and Mail
Striking Halifax Chronicle journalists amp up parallel publication efforts
16.05.19 Halifax Examiner
Local Xpress expands: 'We’re taking the Herald on head-to-head'
16.05.19 CBC News
Local Xpress launches full-service news site in competition with Chronicle Herald
16.05.18 CBC News
Striking Chronicle Herald workers joined by unionists on Sydney picket line
16.05.01 CBC News
Chronicle Herald unionized workers on strike for 100 days
16.04.28 CBC News
Striking Chronicle Herald photographer has stroke on picket line
16.04.26 Andrew Biro
Journalism and democracy in the Chronicle Herald strike
16.04.15 The Walrus
Strike Out | Labour disputes and shoddy reporting — is this the end of the Halifax Chronicle Herald?
16.04.12 CWA Canada
Reaction to scab-produced Herald story fast and furious
16.03.28 CTV Atlantic
Herald strike in 11th week
16.03.28 LocalXpress.ca
Collaboration between employer, workers makes business sense
16.03.02 CBC News
Chronicle Herald strikers joined by Nova Scotia labour unions for rally
16.03.02 Nova Scotia Advocate
Chronicle Herald newsroom workers turn up the pressure
16.02.12 Halifax Examiner
Examineradio interview with striking Chronicle Herald reporter Michael Gorman (Starts at 11:25 minutes into segment.)
16.01.22 CBC News
Chronicle Herald employees in strike
16.01.22 CTV News
Newsroom on the picket line at Halifax Chronicle Herald
16.01.18 The Coast
Chronicle Herald union votes to strike
15.12.23 Prince Arthur Herald
Destroying the Halifax Chronicle Herald
15.12.21 The Coast
How the Chronicle Herald is demolishing its newsroom
15.12.21 Halifax Examiner
Death spiral at the Chronicle Herald
15.12.21 CBC News
Chronicle Herald's talks with newsroom staff break down
15.12.20 Halifax Media Co-op
Chronicle Herald conciliation talks break down
Herald continues its union-busting
campaign of lies and distortion
campaign of lies and distortion
Statement by CWA Canada President Martin O'Hanlon:
2016.11.09 Halifax Chronicle Herald “CEO” Mark Lever is at it again, using the province’s once-venerable newspaper of record to throw a temper tantrum and spew lies.
Mark has used the pages of the Herald several times as propaganda for his now-infamous feats of truth twisting, but today’s rant goes beyond anything we have seen before.
He doesn’t get one sentence in before he blurts out his first whopper – that the company has been at the negotiating table for several weeks. Fact: the sides have held only one bargaining session in months, and that was last week.
He doesn’t get one sentence in before he blurts out his first whopper – that the company has been at the negotiating table for several weeks. Fact: the sides have held only one bargaining session in months, and that was last week.
Halifax Local to file
unfair labour practice complaint
unfair labour practice complaint
2016.11.07 HALIFAX — The union representing striking newsroom workers at The Chronicle Herald will launch an unfair labour practice complaint against the company.
The move comes after talks broke down because the Herald once again refused to compromise on its unreasonable demands despite the fact the union has agreed to major concessions.
The Herald refuses to negotiate fairly even though the union offered another huge concession Friday by agreeing to bargain a non-union production hub. The Herald finally responded late Sunday evening with a counter-proposal that practically mirrored its unacceptable offer from a month ago.
The Herald refuses to negotiate fairly even though the union offered another huge concession Friday by agreeing to bargain a non-union production hub. The Herald finally responded late Sunday evening with a counter-proposal that practically mirrored its unacceptable offer from a month ago.
Herald walks away from talks
with striking newsroom workers
with striking newsroom workers
2016.11.05 HALIFAX — The Chronicle Herald walked away from mediated talks with the union that represents its newsroom workers late Friday afternoon.
With a flurry of outright fabrications and half-truths, the company claimed in a news release Saturday that the union refused to negotiate on terms that had been agreed upon by both parties.
Terms that are already agreed on do not require further negotiation. It was the company that reneged on sending its counter-proposal late Friday afternoon, arguing that the counter-proposal would be withheld unless the union agreed to a number of conditions that included refraining from legal strike activities and honouring a media blackout that the company then ignored in its Saturday news release.
Terms that are already agreed on do not require further negotiation. It was the company that reneged on sending its counter-proposal late Friday afternoon, arguing that the counter-proposal would be withheld unless the union agreed to a number of conditions that included refraining from legal strike activities and honouring a media blackout that the company then ignored in its Saturday news release.
Musician Keith Mullins,
striking Herald editor
write song for workers everywhere
striking Herald editor
write song for workers everywhere
2016.06.14 When Keith Mullins played a recording of Just Another Day during a gig at the Inverary Resort in Baddeck, the song resonated immediately.
"Two or three sets of tables, blue-collar-looking people, asked me 'Where can I get that song?' " the singer-songwriter says by phone from his home in Hunters Mountain, Cape Breton.
Mullins hopes the song, co-written with Randy Jones, an editor and reporter at The Chronicle Herald for 31 years before he was forced out on strike nearly five months ago, will hit a chord with workers everywhere.
"Two or three sets of tables, blue-collar-looking people, asked me 'Where can I get that song?' " the singer-songwriter says by phone from his home in Hunters Mountain, Cape Breton.
Mullins hopes the song, co-written with Randy Jones, an editor and reporter at The Chronicle Herald for 31 years before he was forced out on strike nearly five months ago, will hit a chord with workers everywhere.
Halifax journalists urged to stand firm
in face of Herald’s ‘insulting’ offer
in face of Herald’s ‘insulting’ offer
2016.06.02 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.”
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.”
Newsroom strike talks break down
2016.06.01 HALIFAX — Talks between The Chronicle Herald and its striking newsroom workers broke off today when the company tabled a position worse than the one that forced workers to strike in January.
David Wilson, lead negotiator for the union, said the stance taken by Herald is “unworkable and insulting.”
Wilson, a staff representative with CWA Canada, says the Herald’s position is unlike that of any other newspaper company in the country.
Local Xpress relaunches as full service digital newspaper.
Striking Halifax journalists
expand online rival to Herald
expand online rival to Herald
2016.05.19 Newsroom workers in Halifax today relaunched LocalXpress.ca as a full-spectrum online strike newspaper to compete with their employer’s flagship publication.
Members of the Halifax Typographical Union (HTU), who were forced out on a defensive strike on Jan. 23 by The Chronicle Herald, which has not budged from its union-busting contract demands made late last year, have been producing the news site since Jan. 30.
The HTU announced at a press conference and in a news release this morning that Local Xpress will now be offering local, regional and national news, business, entertainment and sports coverage, as well as accepting advertising.
Members of the Halifax Typographical Union (HTU), who were forced out on a defensive strike on Jan. 23 by The Chronicle Herald, which has not budged from its union-busting contract demands made late last year, have been producing the news site since Jan. 30.
The HTU announced at a press conference and in a news release this morning that Local Xpress will now be offering local, regional and national news, business, entertainment and sports coverage, as well as accepting advertising.
Lies and Damned Lies:
Mark Lever and the Herald strike
Mark Lever and the Herald strike
2016.04.27 HALIFAX – We largely ignore the fiction coming out of the Chronicle Herald these days, but the latest outrageous piece of propaganda from company CEO Mark Lever demands a response.
In an April 22 letter to advertisers, Mark had the audacity to claim that the Herald is “doing everything in our power, short of capitulating to the union’s threats and intimidation, to reach a fair and reasonable agreement.”
Let me be blunt: that is a damned lie.
Let me be blunt: that is a damned lie.
CWA Canada condemns
Herald refugee story
Herald refugee story
2016.04.11 HALIFAX – CWA Canada, the national union that represents striking newsroom staff at The Chronicle Herald, is appalled at the paper’s irresponsible and unethical article on refugee children that has incited hatred against Muslim refugees.
The story in the weekend edition, written by an anonymous scab reporter and quoting two anonymous sources, makes allegations of choking and bullying by refugee elementary students.
The paper has since removed the article from its website and admitted that it was “incomplete” and “insufficiently corroborated.” But the Herald has not fully retracted the piece nor apologized for running it.
The story in the weekend edition, written by an anonymous scab reporter and quoting two anonymous sources, makes allegations of choking and bullying by refugee elementary students.
The paper has since removed the article from its website and admitted that it was “incomplete” and “insufficiently corroborated.” But the Herald has not fully retracted the piece nor apologized for running it.
Enough is enough:
Striking journalists
lambaste Herald for racist story
lambaste Herald for racist story
2016.04.10 HALIFAX — It’s time for The Chronicle Herald to put real journalists forced onto the street in a defensive strike back to work.
A story published in the Weekend edition, written by an anonymous reporter and quoting two anonymous sources, incites hatred and promotes discrimination against Muslims and refugees.
The article, citing allegations of choking and bullying by refugee elementary students presumably against non-refugees, was later changed in TheChronicleHerald.ca online version and eventually removed altogether. But the print version of the article retains a place in perpetuity in the province’s newspaper of record.
The article, citing allegations of choking and bullying by refugee elementary students presumably against non-refugees, was later changed in TheChronicleHerald.ca online version and eventually removed altogether. But the print version of the article retains a place in perpetuity in the province’s newspaper of record.
Herald demands capitulation
before resuming talks
before resuming talks
2016.04.05 HALIFAX — Striking newsroom staff at Nova Scotia’s premier daily newspaper are flummoxed by management’s unwillingness to return to the bargaining table.
“The owners and managers of the newspaper appear to be satisfied to undermine the long-standing Chronicle Herald brand by producing an inferior product with replacement workers while keeping real journalists walking the picket line,” said Ingrid Bulmer, union president.
Ingrid Bulmer, Halifax Typographical Union
2016.03.26 Striking newsroom workers picketed several companies that continue to advertise in the Chronicle Herald, leaving behind boycott messages.
Support grows for striking journos
as unions step up pressure on Herald
as unions step up pressure on Herald
2016.03.14 Support from across Nova Scotia is growing for 59 Chronicle Herald newsroom workers entering the eighth week of a strike to defend local journalism.
Despite recent moves by CWA Canada and its Local, the Halifax Typographical Union, to ratchet up pressure on the employer, the Herald rejected an overture last week to return to the bargaining table.
Herald refuses to return to table,
won’t budge from drastic demands
won’t budge from drastic demands
2016.03.11 The Chronicle Herald has rejected an overture from its striking newsroom staff to return to the bargaining table.
"It appears the Herald has a short-term plan or strategy in place that does not include professional newsroom reporters, photographers, editors and support staff going back to work anytime soon," Ingrid Bulmer, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, said in a news release.
"It appears the Herald has a short-term plan or strategy in place that does not include professional newsroom reporters, photographers, editors and support staff going back to work anytime soon," Ingrid Bulmer, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, said in a news release.
HTU radio ads feature
striking journalists' voices
striking journalists' voices
2016.03.10 The Halifax Typographical Union is airing two ads on local radio stations that feature striking reporters urging the public to help put pressure on The Chronicle Herald to get back to the table. Have a listen:
MIKE GORMAN | SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY
MIKE GORMAN | SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY
HTU: Pay equity an issue
on International Women's Day
on International Women's Day
2016.03.07 Striking members of The Chronicle Herald newsroom want their employer to mark International Women's Day by dropping at least one of the 1,200 controversial contract changes it is demanding that staff accept.
"We want to remind Nova Scotians that one of this company's outrageous demands is to get rid of the pay equity language in our contract," said Ingrid Bulmer, president of Halifax Typographical Union, which represents the 59 reporters, photographers, editors and support staff.
Tony Tracy, Canadian Labour Congress
2016.03.02 President Martin O'Hanlon tells a news conference that CWA Canada and its Halifax Local are ratcheting up pressure on Chronicle Herald management to get back to the bargaining table.
O'Hanlon challenges CEO of Herald
to debate Halifax newsroom strike
to debate Halifax newsroom strike
2016.02.09 CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon has challenged Mark Lever, the CEO of Halifax Herald Ltd., to a public debate about why he forced his editorial employees onto a picket line. The 61 members of the media union's Halifax Local had no choice but to strike on Jan. 23 after the Chronicle Herald moved to lock them out.
Students could be key
in Halifax journalists’ strike
in Halifax journalists’ strike
2016.02.01 Journalism students and recent graduates are well placed to support Chronicle Herald newsroom workers in Halifax, who have been on strike since Jan. 23. They can collaborate with newspaper workers as Ontario students did during the Peterborough Examiner strike from November 1968 to April 1969.
Talks break down
as Herald refuses to bend
as Herald refuses to bend
2016.01.25 Talks between the Halifax Typographical Union and The Chronicle Herald on Day 3 of a strike by 61 newsroom employees have broken down.
The company, responding to a second concessionary offer, refused to budge on any of its proposals, which would see wages slashed and senior editors moved to a non-union production centre.
Eric Wynne photo
Patricia Brooks-Arenburg and fellow members of the Halifax
Typographical Union struck the Herald at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 23.
Halifax union forced into
defensive strike at Herald
defensive strike at Herald
2016.01.23 The CWA Canada Local that represents 61 newsroom workers at The Chronicle Herald called a defensive strike at 12:01 this morning.
The Halifax Typographical Union said in a news release it had no choice but to strike after the employer said it would impose working conditions contained in its final offer, which members had resoundingly rejected.
Halifax journalists down to the wire
with union-busting Herald
with union-busting Herald
2016.01.22 At one minute past midnight tonight, The Chronicle Herald and its 61 unionized newsroom employees will be in a legal strike or lockout position.
“We believe it’s clear that busting the union is the Herald’s primary goal during this process,” the Halifax Typographical Union said in a news release.
CWA Canada Associate Members
call for solidarity with Halifax journos
call for solidarity with Halifax journos
2016.01.22 CWA Canada Associate Members are joining the Halifax Typographical Union (CWA Canada Local 30130) in calling on freelancers and student journalists to stand in solidarity with newsroom staff at The Chronicle Herald who could be on picket lines Saturday morning. Management has for several months been attempting to recruit recent journalism school graduates and freelancers to produce news coverage in the event of a work stoppage.
Herald rejects major concessions
offered by newsroom union
offered by newsroom union
2016.01.20 In a last-ditch attempt to avoid a lockout, the Halifax Typographical Union offered major concessions to The Chronicle Herald in a conciliation session today, but met with outright rejection.
Management informed the union the company intends to impose a new set of working conditions as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
As a result, the union said it intends to immediately file a 48-hour strike notice. However, management has said it would impose a lockout before a strike could take place.
Halifax journalists defy lockout threat
with 98.3% strike vote
with 98.3% strike vote
2016.01.18 Newsroom staff on Saturday countered a lockout threat at the Chronicle Herald with a 98.3-per-cent strike vote. The union hopes the show of solidarity will get the company back to the table with some reasonable proposals.
“This vote is a strong condemnation of the Chronicle Herald’s bullying approach to labour relations,” Ingrid Bulmer, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, said in a news release. “Their promise to lock us out and their clear attempt to destroy the newsroom union is unacceptable.”
Herald targets jobs, journalism
as it prepares to lock out newsroom
as it prepares to lock out newsroom
2016.01.12 Almost a third of newsroom jobs and the survival of quality journalism are at stake at the Halifax Chronicle Herald, where management has served notice that it plans to lock out staff at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 23.
The company’s plan to slash news coverage and increase “sponsored content” has met with stunned disbelief in journalism circles.
Among the more egregious of the Herald’s proposals is to cut almost its entire editing staff and offer some jobs working in its non-unionized advertorial department for much lower pay and benefits.