Unionized staff at The Globe and Mail voted overwhelmingly to reject a contract offer from management, bringing them another step closer to a strike or lockout.
Reporters, advertising sales staff and other workers represented by Unifor Local 87-M followed their union’s recommendation and voted 92.3% against the offer during two meetings at the Hyatt Regency hotel Wednesday, according to a tweet from union representative Howard Law. As of publication, Globe management had not announced whether the company plans return to the table with an offer that’s more palatable to the union, lock the workers out or stand its ground, possibly prompting a strike.
Globe reporter Eric Atkins tweeted a picture of workers erecting temporary fences near a parking lot at the newspaper’s Front Street headquarters before the vote Wednesday, leading to speculation that management is intending to bar striking or locked-out workers from the building. Sean Humphrey, vice president of marketing at The Globe and a spokesman for the paper, did not respond to request for comment on whether or not that is the case.
Unionized Globe employees have been working without a contract since Tuesday. Almost two weeks ago, employees of The Globe — majority owned by the Thomson family’s Woodbridge Co. Ltd., with a minority stake held by Bell Canada (BCE) — voted 97% in favour of giving the union a mandate to strike if it hadn’t reached an agreement once the contract expired.
The unionized Globe workers are preparing to launch a rival news outlet to compete for readers with a potentially unstaffed and weakened Globe and Mail. The paper will continue to publish in print or online in the event of a strike or lockout, with articles and other content created and edited by editorial managers and other non-unionized staff.
The website URL www.globenation.com currently redirects visitors to the website of the workers’ union local.
In a statement earlier this week, Unifor said it recommended members reject the company’s offer because it would weaken job security, reduce base pay for advertising sales staff and require certain newsroom staff to work on “advertorial” articles paid for by advertisers. Mr. Humphrey had called the offer members rejected Wednesday “a fair and reasonable position that allows The Globe to remain competitive into the future.”
The offer also included a plan to reduce the number of union job categories, which would streamline potential future layoffs by affecting the workers with the least seniority in each category.
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