This includes the Toronto Sun.
National Post's Ontario newsroom workers look to unionize
Saying they have "no other realistic option," newsroom employees at the National Post in Ontario are working to unionize in the face of pay cuts and buyouts that they believe will threaten the quality of Postmedia Network Inc.'s national newspaper.
The paper's staff announced Wednesday morning that they were working to organize with CWA Canada, a division of the Communications Workers of America.
"It has been a year of unprecedented events, of things we once thought were beyond the realm of possibility," the union committee wrote in a press release. "A reality television star is president of the United States. Ontario's liquor control board is planning to sell marijuana. And the National Post is unionizing."
Since the newspaper launched in 1998, its newsroom employees have not been unionized.
CWA Canada currently has 17 locals across the country, including the Ottawa Newspaper Guild – representing employees CTV Ottawa, the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun – and the Halifax Typographical Union, which represents the Chronicle Herald, whose newsroom recently ended a nearly 19-month-long strike.
Postmedia has shed hundreds of staff in recent years as it has struggled to get on stable financial footing and pay down debt. A round of buyout offers was announced last week at the Post itself, threatening the already shrinking newsroom's staff. While Postmedia posted a profit in the most recent quarter, it was in part thanks to a one-time gain from slashing employee benefits.
The company's total long-term debt was $349.1-million as of May 31. Cost cutting is ramping up across the board: in June, the company announced the Post would cease printing a Monday edition year-round, having already begun a tradition of not printing on summer Mondays.
The company closed the sale of its media-monitoring division, Infomart, to Meltwater News Canada Inc. for $38-million in August. The same month, it agreed to sell a Toronto printing plant to RICE Group for $30.5-million. The proceeds from both will be used to pay down Postmedia's debt.
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National Post's Ontario newsroom workers look to unionize
Saying they have "no other realistic option," newsroom employees at the National Post in Ontario are working to unionize in the face of pay cuts and buyouts that they believe will threaten the quality of Postmedia Network Inc.'s national newspaper.
The paper's staff announced Wednesday morning that they were working to organize with CWA Canada, a division of the Communications Workers of America.
"It has been a year of unprecedented events, of things we once thought were beyond the realm of possibility," the union committee wrote in a press release. "A reality television star is president of the United States. Ontario's liquor control board is planning to sell marijuana. And the National Post is unionizing."
Since the newspaper launched in 1998, its newsroom employees have not been unionized.
CWA Canada currently has 17 locals across the country, including the Ottawa Newspaper Guild – representing employees CTV Ottawa, the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun – and the Halifax Typographical Union, which represents the Chronicle Herald, whose newsroom recently ended a nearly 19-month-long strike.
Postmedia has shed hundreds of staff in recent years as it has struggled to get on stable financial footing and pay down debt. A round of buyout offers was announced last week at the Post itself, threatening the already shrinking newsroom's staff. While Postmedia posted a profit in the most recent quarter, it was in part thanks to a one-time gain from slashing employee benefits.
The company's total long-term debt was $349.1-million as of May 31. Cost cutting is ramping up across the board: in June, the company announced the Post would cease printing a Monday edition year-round, having already begun a tradition of not printing on summer Mondays.
The company closed the sale of its media-monitoring division, Infomart, to Meltwater News Canada Inc. for $38-million in August. The same month, it agreed to sell a Toronto printing plant to RICE Group for $30.5-million. The proceeds from both will be used to pay down Postmedia's debt.
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