Local 87 M of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers, the union that represents Globe and Mail workers, voted overwhelmingly to give its bargaining committee a mandate to call a strike if need be.
Now let's hope it won't be needed and that a negotiated settlement can be reached (note, I work for CTV News, which is part of CTVglobemedia. The Globe and Mail is a corporate cousin to CTV).
The Globe and Mail union members voted 97% in favour of strike action today, and could walkout on the job as early as June 30 if a deal is not reached to replace their expiring contract.
Brad Honywill, President of Local 87 M of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers said that there was a 70% turnout among union members, with 302 of the 311 members voting in favour of strike action.
"Today's decision sent a very strong message to the company, an almost unanimous support of Globe union members in opposing the company's offer," Honywill said.
According to Honywill, under the Globe's proposal 30% of the workforce would see a wage reduction, and pension benefits would be cut up to 50% for future retirees.
The current contract for Globe union members, who include 445 editorial, circulation, and sales staff, expires at midnight on June 30.
Management had proposed a six-year-deal, which includes a total compounded salary increase of 7.2 per cent over six years.
It has also proposed one unpaid week off each year for all employees, a work day increase from 7 to 7.5 hours, with no extra pay for the half hour, overtime paid at straight time for the first half hour and changes to pensions.
There was some interesting background in a Friday CP story on the pressures affecting other news organizations:
Montreal's La Presse, the biggest newspaper in Quebec, announced this week it will stop publishing its Sunday edition at the end of the month as part of a cost-cutting drive to save $26 million, including $13 million in concessions annually from unions.
La Presse is the flagship newspaper of
Gesca Ltee, a wholly owned division of Power Corp. (TSX:POW).
Meanwhile,
Canwest Global Communications (TSX:CGS), publisher of big city dailies across
the country, is looking for wage concessions from its organized workers and
senior managers to save up to $20 million a year in operating costs.
In
addition, the Winnipeg-based multimedia company is in talks with creditors and
banks to restructure a $3.9 billion debt that has weighed down the company's
operations for years.
Canwest will also stop publishing its National Post
newspaper on Mondays for the summer, starting June 29.
Canadian media
conglomerate Quebecor Inc. (TSX:QBR.B) is reworking its operations to
regionalize some smaller local papers in Quebec and Ontario.
"If you look
at it from the perspective of shareholders from those companies, they know
business is down, but the bigger worry is (whether) it's going to bounce back,"
said Kaan Yigit, an analyst at Solutions Research Group.
"At the end of
the day there just isn't enough money to go around to protect any of the
jobs."
Other Canadian news organizations, from publishers to
broadcasters, have been slashing hundreds of jobs to streamline and become more
efficient as they cope with the advertising slump.
Conventional TV
broadcast stations have also been put up for sale by Canwest and CTVglobemedia
because they can't make money in this economic environment.
Here's where it gets quite scary:
Duncan
Stewart, director of research and analysis at DSam Consulting, said that layoffs
and wage cuts won't be enough to rescue media giants from their current
troubles.
"It is actually impossible to cut enough to change the business
model to historical levels of profitability and (at the same time) continue to
produce content," he said.
Stewart noted that the historical business
model has generally been gross profits that are about 20 per cent of
revenues.
"No matter how deeply you cut you can't get there," he
said.
Instead, he suggested that companies need to start looking
elsewhere to shore up more revenue to keep their journalistic operations
running. For instance, some newspapers charge a premium to access online
content, or have raised the prices of the daily paper.
In a different
approach, Quebecor Media, owner of the Sun newspaper chain, is opening a new
printing and distribution division that will print more flyers which end up in
its newspapers and on front doorsteps.
It's a plan the company says will help offset the challenges facing the newspaper industry by offering advertisers a more cohesive option.
Hmm. Boosting flyers was how the Regina Leader-Post tried to make up for eroding display advertising revenue almost 20 years ago.
Back to the future for ideas, it seems.