Photo: Council of Canadians organizers Angela Giles and Tori Ball joined the picket line on Jan. 25. Twitter photo @rrose84
The Council of Canadians stands in solidarity with the Halifax Typographical Union.
On Feb. 1, the Canadian Press reported, “The 61 editorial staff have been off the job since Jan. 23. The union is striking against a list of contract concessions which Herald management says are needed to cope with economic challenges affecting the North American newspaper industry. Among a host of proposed changes, the newspaper wants to reduce wages, lengthen working hours, and alter future pension benefits. The union has said it would remain a union ‘in name only’ if it agrees to more than 1,232 changes to the existing contract.”
The CBC adds, “The labour contract proposed by management of the Chronicle Herald contains language that could be used to kill the union at Canada’s oldest independently owned newspaper, legal experts say. …It changes job security to ‘an aspiration rather than a right’, said Jula Hughes, a University of New Brunswick professor who specializes in labour law and has reviewed the offer. …Management could hire contractors or brand new non-union employees to do the work of union members. It’s language that Hughes said she has never seen.”
Striking staff have now launched an online news site which can be read here.
The union’s Facebook page is here.
