At one minute past midnight Friday, The Chronicle Herald and its 61 unionized newsroom employees will be in a legal strike or lockout position.
In a news release Friday, the Halifax Typographical Union says "we believe it’s clear that busting the union is the Herald’s primary goal during this process."
Grant Machum of Stewart McKelvey, Herald lawyer and chief negotiator, says the release, advertises on his website that he’s been “successfully advising employers on operating union free for over 20 years.”
The union says the company has never budged from its proposals, which they claim makes 1,232 changes to the existing contract. "These proposals, if accepted, would damage our working conditions so much that we would exist as a union in name only."
Nancy Cook, the Herald’s vice-president of administration, has called the proposals "common to newspaper contracts in Canada."
But CWA Canada representative Dave Wilson negotiates newspaper collective agreements across the country and says, "that is simply not true."
“The company’s proposed layoff clause doesn’t exist in any newspaper that I deal with,” Wilson said. “The hours of work and overtime (no overtime until 48 hours); that doesn’t exist anywhere.
“When the Herald says this, it is misleading its readers and Nova Scotians.”
"The Herald’s proposals," adds the release, "also clearly attack the quality of the product, something unionized journalists take great pride in."
Management has said that some positions have become unnecessary and inefficient, specifically in the areas of layout and photography.
Late Thursday, the union says it learned the Herald has arranged a news-sharing agreement with Irving-owned Brunswick News.
The newspaper, says HTU VP Frank Campbell, told the union representing reporters, photographers, editors, columnists, editorial writers and library and support staff twice this week that it would impose regressive working conditions when the current contract expires at midnight today.