A union recap

As decades go, this one wrapping up tonight has not been kind to union and non-union Sun Media employees and print journalism in general.

And as years go, 2009 was more of the same as Quebecor continued to downsize and reshape the way Canadian newspapers have been doing business for more than 250 years.

Brad Honywill, president of CEP Local 87-M (SONG), provides TSF readers with a recap of 2009 and a hint of what to expect in 2010.

He writes:

Sun Family Members,

This has been a difficult year for members of the Sun Media family, both union and non-union.

There’s been a gradual erosion of our numbers over the course of 2009, climaxing with the announcement that the Belleville Intelligencer mailroom will be closed this January and the work transferred to Kingston, resulting in the loss of 50 jobs.

And we’re all shocked by the nature and severity of the cutbacks at the Toronto Star, likely affecting many former Sun Media members. The union is awaiting a response from the company on our alternatives to the downsizing, but the general trend of outsourcing is a worry for all 3,200 members in the 34 workplaces serviced by SONG (CEP 87-M).

Sun Media has taken a somewhat different tact, “insourcing” the work to centralized, non-union, centres in places like Barrie, Brockville and Woodstock.

But there have been some victories over the past year in preserving member jobs and rights.

We organized the Sarnia Observer as 2008 came to a close and, in 2009, the spin-off centralized pagination centre in Dresden. Later, we succeeded in getting the Dresden unit re-united with the Sarnia unit as a result of an agreement reached in a hearing before the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

The Board also ruled this year that Sun Media is the “common employer” for members at the Toronto Sun, London Free Press and Ottawa Sun, giving members more rights in defending the transfer of their work to non-union entities.

And the London Free Press unit has succeeded in attracting many jobs as the most recent “Centre of Excellence” for production and pagination work.

As we enter 2010, several Sun Media contracts are in negotiation and several more come due at the end of the year.

Currently in negotiation are the following units: London Free Press editorial; Chatham Daily News; Pembroke Observer; Belleville Intelligencer; Simcoe Reformer; Brantford Expositor, Niagara Falls Review, Stratford Beacon-Herald advertising and the Sarnia Observer.

Coming up for renewal at the end of 2010 are: the Owen Sound Sun-Times; Toronto Sun; Ottawa Sun; St. Catharines Standard and the Stratford Beacon-Herald editorial/composing/mailroom unit. The contract for the Local’s largest unit, the Toronto Star, also comes up at the end of 2010.

These are tough times to be in negotiations. But we’re fighting hard to preserve jobs and working conditions, specifically elements of Quebecor’s recently-introduced Flex Media benefit plan which provides virtually no protection against escalating health care costs.

In this environment, I think it’s important that an experienced leader, with the broad support of the unit chairs and the local executive, be at the helm of our Local. Consequently, I intend to seek another term as SONG president at our nomination meeting on Jan. 20.

As we start 2010, I wish all the members of the Sun Family a very happy New Year. No matter what gets thrown at us, we remain a family of hard-working, skilled, dedicated employees who can be proud every day of our contributions and support for fellow members.

Brad Honywill
President, CEP Local 87-M (SONG)

Thank you for your comments, Brad.

Happy New Year to you and all members of the Toronto Sun Family, from Day Oners to novices.

We look forward to another year of your TSF postings and comments.

Weekly sameness

Weekly newspapers across the Sun Media chain will all be required to use almost identical layouts, from front page to back, beginning in mid January.

Weekly editors will be told how their newspapers will be laid out, with little variation other than the name of the newspaper in the flag/masthead/nameplate.

Editors will be told where copy and headings go, the size and style of fonts to be used and where ads will be placed.

A TSF reader sent us samples of the new format and we feel for weekly editors who treasure freedom of choice in the newsroom.

It is sanitized, cookie cutter sameness that eliminates the need for creativity.

Happy 2010 weekly editors.

Torch reality

A TSF tip of the hat to Paul Berton, editor-in-chief of the London Free Press, for remembering Ian Robertson in his blog posting on London's pending Olympics torch visit.

Ian, 61, was hospitalized with a concussion Friday after falling during a scuffle with torch security in Newmarket. It followed other incidents in Toronto and Peterborough involving torch security staff and media reps trying to do their jobs.

On Saturday, the Toronto Star's coverage of Ian's injury was a single paragraph in the print edition. The Globe and Mail, zilch. How many incidents does it take for media to realize there is a problem with security tactics?

But we digress. This is what Berton had to say:

The torch is coming! Yippee! I expect The London Free Press will treat the event with all the pomp and circumstance due such a thing, more or less.

Whether that's because a lot of people seem genuinely interested and excited by this elaborate publicity stunt, or because it's Christmastime and the news is getting slower by the hour as we approach the 25th, it's hard to say.

I must note, however, that was a nasty business in the Toronto area Friday, when a Toronto Sun photographer covering the torch relay was sent to the hospital with a concussion.

According to news reports that quoted a spokesman for the union representing journalists, security officers "shoved" Ian Robertson to the ground.

Sure, some crowd control is necessary for the safety of the torch bearer and others, but this sounds as if someone went overboard. The photographers were simply trying to get a good picture.

Besides, this is an Olympic torch (apparently available for sale by the dozen), and the event is simply a procession, heavily controlled by corporate sponsors such as Coca Cola. It's not as if it's a state secret and we're at war.

End of blog posting, but hopefully not the end of media analysis of what occurred in Newmarket, Toronto and Peterborough.

Journal Xmas

Two French-language YouTube posts by the 253 locked out Journal de Montreal employees.

The first clip is from the start of the lockout last January.

The second, posted this week, is from the CBC:

January: The faces:



Christmas 2009, 11 months later:



You don't have to be bilingual to sense the frustration.

MediaMatin for the streets of Montreal?

Bylines etc

Sun Media is out in bylines, QMI Agency is in.

But not always for QMI Agency.

If John Smith of the Toronto Sun writes a story, "Toronto Sun" will be beneath his byline.

But if John Smith's story is used in another Sun Media newspaper, it will be John Smith, QMI Agency.

Your own story, the name of your paper. Shared story, QMI.

Except for bylines for parliamentary bureau staffers. They don't change. It is John Smith, Parliamentary Bureau, in all of the papers.

As 2009 winds down and the countdown to Sun Media sans the Canadian Press next June continues, it is time to think QMI Agency.

Or QMI.

For decades, media have abbreviated Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI), Canadian Press (CP) etc. to save space after first mention. QMI will surely follow.

Dropping "Sun Media" in editorial content is yet another slice of the chain's roots being trimmed and discarded.

Photogs flamed

Updated re Peterborough and Toronto incidents
Two Toronto Sun photographers were roughed up by security staff during the Olympics torch run in Newmarket today, says a CEP union press release.

Ian Robertson 61, required treatment at hospital for a head injury after being pushed to the ground, says the press release. Dave Thomas was shoved around but not injured.

The press release calls for criminal charges to be laid.

Ian, one of the most laid back guys in the Sun newsroom, no doubt never thought he'd be injured while trying to shoot video at an Olympics torch relay event. A George W. speaking engagement, perhaps, but a torch run?

"This is an outrage," said Brad Honywill, president of Local 87-M of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. "The Olympics are supposed to represent the highest of human values but the behaviour of the security officers represents nothing less than brutality and cowardice."

There were also reports of media reps being roughed up during Olympics torch coverage in Toronto and Peterborough.

A Toronto Sun story says Frank Gunn, a Canadian Press photographer, was "also on the receiving end of police aggression when a group of officers apparently took issue with him trying to photograph the torch near Front and Church Sts."

Meanwhile, two Peterborough Examiner employees covering the torch run in Peterborough were also roughed up by security guards, says a TSF reader.

"Peterborough Examiner staff reporter Andrea Houston and staff photographer Cliff Skarstedt were also roughed up but not injured during the Olympic Torch Relay in Peterborough as Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey ran the final leg of the relay," says the TSF reader.

"Other media covering the same event also witnessed the security guards rough treatment to Examiner staffers."

(TSF could not find mention of the Peterborough incidents in the Examiner's online coverage.)

It is all kind of a bummer after Toronto Sun vet Mark Bonokoski was pictured on the front page of the Sun proudly carrying a torch in Lakefield.

The Olympic flame has dimmed along its Ontario trek, with a Grafton bypass, a demonstration by aboriginals in Toronto and rough play in Newmarket, Toronto and Peterborough.

PKP & Xmas

TSF winds up Cutback Casualties Week with PKP's 2009 Christmas holidays greeting for employees who survived another year of cutbacks.

"I'm grateful for the dedication to the cause," says PKP.

He also says:

"I hope you come back fresh and rested for 2010 promises to be as full of challenges as the year that has ended."

The challenge in 2009, say TSF readers still employed, was to keep your head low, nose to the grindstone and not be caught commenting on Sun Media matters.

They expect more of the same in 2010.

As for PKP's Christmas 2009 video, we give it a one ho rating for sincerity.

Our thanks to all of the cutback casualties who provided updates on their post-Quebecor lives.

Cutback Casualty 4

This is Cutback Casualties Week at TSF, representing a decade of Quebecor cutbacks at Sun Media newspapers and at former Osprey Media newspapers since 2007.

We invite former employees affected by the massive Black Tuesday staff cuts last December, or any other layoffs and firings, to update TSF on their post-Quebecor lives. E-mail your stories to TSF.

Ian Harvey, a 2001 casualty, writes:

"I knew it was coming. I was officially working on the canoe.ca side, though I was actually in the Sun newsroom running fyitoronto.com, which was supposed to be the Sun's local portal on canoe.

"No one had a clue what we were doing. I never once saw a business plan, a marketing plan or anything that would give us direction. It was seat of the pants with Montreal running things.

"John Paton was GM of Canoe and then he left and Jose Leal took over. The confusion continued and bodies started going over the side of the canoe.

"I was on vacation in August when I got a call asking me to come in to a 'meeting.' Right then I knew I was gone. My staff too.

"I knew I couldn't go back to the Sun because there were too many cuts already underway, so took my package and jumped.

"That was Aug 22, 2001. It didn't hit me until Sept 11 when I saw the live footage on CNN and realized I wasn't in the news media biz anymore.

"That was the turning point. I started half-heartedly looking for a job and freelancing while still enjoying the late summer weather. Dave Blizzard called me a few weeks later to say there was a job going at Air Miles.

"I applied, got it and it lasted 30 months. (After Air Miles) I went back to school at the Canadian Film Centre New Media program. In September 2004, I started freelancing and fell into a part time gig teaching at Centennial College.

"In 2005, I panicked, With no teaching gig to back up my freelancing, I needed income and took the news editor's job at the Daily Commercial News, but by then I knew freelancing was what I wanted to do.

"My freelance work suddenly picked up and I quit the DCN after eight days. It really wasn't me. I can't ride a desk. They (DCN) have turned out to be one of my best and more dependable clients. I go there a couple of times a month to do layout and I write a lot of stories for them too. Still great people to work with.

"Funny how it all turns out.

"Until last January, I was doing well. Since then, not so well. I was down 60% some months from my highs of the year before. Magazines folded, clients cut freelance budgets, the competition increased. On average, I'd say I was down 50% on the year.

"But I'm surviving. Looking to do more corporate work and getting some here and there. It's slow, but going in the right direction. I've learned not to panic and use the slow days to look for new clients, pitch new work or just take a day off and enjoy the sunshine.

"I miss the people at the Sun, but in many ways I still see them. Al Cairns, Ganley-Man, Captain Mike and Dave . . . we all run into each other at events, here on the blog or on Facebook.

"What was will never be again, but then that's life. I was privileged to have enjoyed the best years of the Sun (I joined Jan. 1, 1979) and worked for, and with, the best people.

"I never felt we needed a union because if you had a problem you talked to someone and they listened. They may not always have changed things, but you felt someone listened.

"And there was one time I typed a letter to Doug Creighton complaining about the miserly raise the newsroom got and how the gap at the Star was getting bigger.

"Doug responded and we got more money.

"Try that with PKP.

"If there now, I would be a loyal and proud union member. In fact I am. I am a member of CEP local 2040, the Canadian Freelance Union, part of the same family as CEP local 87M SONG.

"I shudder to think how things might be without union representation today.

"Hey, golden days right? We all have to move on.

"Now I know how all those Tely guys felt and what they were always on about. I didn't get it at the time. But I get it now.

"There is life after the Sun. We all shine in our own way and we all carry the spirit that molded us, made us and formed us into what we are and who we are today.

"No one can take that away from us. No one. PKP and his bean counters can do what they want, but they will never, ever recreate a place where people would come in on their day off just to help out when the shit hit the fan.

"You cannot buy that kind of loyalty. You have to earn it.

"Good luck everyone. Stay in touch."

Thank you for your update, Ian.

Cutback Casualty 3

This is Cutback Casualties Week at TSF, representing a decade of Quebecor cutbacks at Sun Media newspapers and at former Osprey Media newspapers since 2007.

We invite former employees affected by the massive Black Tuesday staff cuts last December, or any other layoffs and firings, to update TSF on their post-Quebecor lives. E-mail your stories to TSF.

Wayne Newton, former editorial coordinator/national comment editor:

"I was shocked and caught totally off guard when my job as editorial coordinator/national comment copy editor was eliminated in October.

"I thought it was a job of the future, largely cyber-commuting with editors across the country, and I miss it very much.

"Now, with the help of a career counsellor and the support of family and friends, I am ramping up my search for a new, suitable position in London and am optimistic something good will come up in 2010.

"My exit was eased by the class shown by Glenn Garnett, Paul Berton, Rob Granatstein (who took the time to create a hilarious "tribute" page), Lorrie Goldstein, and several other comment editors and writers who called or e-mailed.

"There are many good, classy people in the company and I wish them all the success in the world. As for me, I'll keep plugging away with my resume polished and my fingers crossed.

"Meanwhile, I'm Twittering and building my Linkedin connections.

"Thank you (TSF) for maintaining this blog.

"Wayne Newton"

Thank you for your update, Wayne.

Cutback Casualty 2

This is Cutback Casualties Week at TSF, representing a decade of Quebecor cutbacks at Sun Media newspapers and at former Osprey Media newspapers since 2007.

We invite former employees affected by the massive Black Tuesday staff cuts last December, or any other layoffs and firings, to update TSF on their post-Quebecor lives. E-mail your stories to TSF.

Derrick Cracknell writes:

"I had worked (with media for) 28 years, starting out with Thomson Newspapers and ending January 2008 with Quebecor as general manager at Georgian Web in Barrie.

"At one time, Georgian Web was running three shifts, printing about 35 products per week and employed 22 full time and 35 part time staff. This plant has since been shuttered.

"During my 28-year tenure with the various ownership companies, I was treated very well and made lots of friends and business contacts along the way.

"I have since found employment with Winchester Print and Stationery in Winchester, just south of Ottawa. This is a family run, full service printing company and stationery store. They are awesome to work with and we print many community papers and magazines. We also have sheetfed, bindery, folders, cutters, laminating and shrink wrapping equipment, as well as prepress services.

"I would encourage any former newspaper employees thinking of starting up a community paper to contact us as we can accommodate most requests and currently do some work for newspaper start ups that have gone on to be quite successful.

"I have been a reader of this blog for several years and appreciate the work that goes into it.

"Cheers and all the best to you and your readers for a happy, safe and prosperous holiday season.

"Derrick Cracknell, Winchester Print and Stationery, 613-774-3186."

Thank you for your update, Derrick.