La Presse Bargaining at Delicate Stage

American disease hitting Canadian papers

by Gordon Sova (gordon.sova@thomsonreuters.com)

The publishers of La Presse, the Montreal French-language daily newspaper, have placed a deadline of December 1 to get collective agreements with their eight unions.  Otherwise, the paper will close.  The financial troubles that have already decimated newspapers south of the border are evident here.

On October 28, the newspaper reached tentative agreements with the four unions affiliated with the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) — advertising, pre-press, printing and stationary engineers.  However, things are not going so well with the other four unions affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) — editorial, clerical, IT and distribution.  The CSN represents the majority of the employees. 

It hasn’t been an easy time recently for Quebec journalists.  In 2007 and 2008, the employees of the Journal de Québec were locked out for 16 months.  This year, journalists at the Journal de Montréal have been locked out since January.

On October 27, the company allegedly made its final offer directly to the employees.  As a result, the editorial union has filed a complaint claiming negotiation in bad faith and undermining of the union.  The allegations will be heard on November 2.  In the meantime, however, the FTQ unions will have already voted on October 29 on their offer.  Some unions could have new agreements satisfactory to the company while others hold out under a cloud of mistrust.  All with the deadline looming.

This has the makings of a nasty finish.  At least all the larger locals will have to ratify in order to meet the newspaper’s deadline.  While the FTQ proposals are not yet public, the CSN’s editorial union, at least, is looking at a number of job losses.  Harsher terms in the offer are likely to sour relations between the two provincial organizations, which were not always friendly in the first place.  And from the employer’s perspective, having the unions chained together like the two escaped criminals from the chain gang, both needing and mistrusting each other, may well provoke suspicion and irrationality.  That’s not something that is needed if the financial crisis of the newspaper is as grave as it has been portrayed.