TNG Canada: Keep OUR Newspapers LOCAL

Osprey bought up 21 daily newspapers between 2001 and 2003. Now it is getting rid
of long-time employees in classified advertising and reader sales/service departments.


NEWS TRACKER
23 April 07 TNGCanada.org North Bay negotiators might turn to conciliator for help 15 March 07 TNGCanada.org Steadfast Guild members in Sudbury ratify 'pretty good contract' after Osprey newspaper does U-turn on concession demands 13 March 07 TNGCanada.org Workplace issues focus of talks at North Bay daily 08 March 07 The Globe and Mail Hobbled by market value, Osprey hints at going private 06 March 07 The Globe and Mail Sifton will consider Osprey sale 06 March 07 The Globe and Mail Osprey financial hurdles may be too steep 23 February 07 TNGCanada.org Labour Ministry orders membership vote on Osprey newspaper's final contract offer 16 December 06 SooToday.com Sault Star employees win outsourcing protection 15 December 06 TNGCanada.org Daily's unionized workers, community supporters, run Osprey outsourcing policy out of town 08 December 06 SooToday.com Sault Star union enters conciliation talks 07 December 06 TNGCanada.org Osprey Media squaring off with Local that has remarkable community support 28 November 06 TNGCanada.org Seasoned president of North Bay Local re-elected to lead charge against job outsourcing 27 November 06 TNGCanada.org Sudbury Star workers overwhelmingly reject settlement offer 25 October 06 TNGCanada.org Sudbury Star next target of newspaper chain's anti-union drive 23 October 06 TNGCanada.org Local hard hit by Osprey Media job outsourcing reluctantly votes for new deal 03 October 06 TNGCanada.org Kingston settlement shifts attention to St. Catharines, Sudbury 10 August 06 TNGCanada.org Storm clouds gathering at several Osprey dailies 02 June 06 TNGCanada.org Sault Star layoff underscores fight for job security at 3 daily newspapers 04 May 06 TNGCanada.org Conciliation sought after talks break down at Osprey daily
Photos: Tom Ludwig The Keep Our Newspapers Local campaign was a hot topic at the TNG Canada national council meeting in Sudbury April 1 and 2. The 'Osprey Caucus' briefed their union colleagues on how the campaign is going and discussed strategy.
Guild Local presidents Dan Seguin (North Bay Nugget), Linda Richardson (Sault Ste Marie Star) and Brenda Halden (St. Catharines Standard), showed off their campaign T-shirts and made an impressive display of the thousands of pledge cards collected so far.

27 March 06 TNGCanada.org
Kingston Local ready to strike to beat back Osprey assault on job security

Graphic: Sootoday.com

Illustration: SooToday.com

07 March 06 SooToday.com
They're coming for you, Mike!
By David Helwig
Look what you've gone and done now, Michael Sifton!
First, you had to get Linda Richardson up in arms over your scheme to make up for the $2.5 million in cash distributions that you overpaid to Osprey Media Group investors last year.
Everyone who's worked alongside that woman knows you never want to get on her wrong side, but you just had to announce you'd be outsourcing jobs at the Sault Star and other Osprey papers to call centres in Niagara Falls and Sarnia.
That got Linda and her Newspaper Guild friends really upset.
And now, word is you've got all of Sault Ste. Marie City Council after you too!

10th anniversary of Michael Sifton's first hatchet job
Blogger and former staff reporter Bill Doskoch recalls the carnage at the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix, only days after the Sifton family's company, Armadale, was taken over by Conrad Black, who made Michael Sifton one of his henchmen. Excerpt:

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Michael Sifton held a news conference that started about the same time we were formally getting the bad news. Some of the questions were about the papers' financial performance. "I think as you full well know, Armadale's a private company," Sifton said. (inaudible question) "I did not say that we lost money. I'm saying that the cost structures are not what they should be." Asked about whether they had lost money, he replied, "No, Armadale has not lost money; it has made money. It has not made enough money. Again, if we start to consider the millions of dollars that go into these operations on an annual basis for capital and some of the other improvements, no, Armadale does not perform anywhere near what other companies in the public world." My understanding is that in the depths of a vicious national and provincial recession in the early 1990s, the L-P still had operating margins in the 15 per cent range — low enough to make the faces of the money men freeze into death masks. Who knows how much money it made during the good times?

28 February 06 TNGCanada.org
Osprey publisher threatens legal action over yanked bylines

25 February 06 SooToday.com
Is the Sault Star for sale?

Illustration: SooToday.com

Graphic: Sootoday.com