July 2, 2020 – Eighty workers at Postmedia’s printing plant in Toronto are now officially unionized after a large majority — 48 to 18 — voted to join the Canadian Media Guild (CWA Canada Local 30213), which is part of The NewsGuild-CWA.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board approved an application for union certification.
The unit is comprised of all employees at the printing facility, including the press room, reel room, and distribution center. The workers organized for fair pay, a voice in decisions that impact their work lives, health and safety and job security.
The workers have been deemed essential workers in the pandemic, and yet their salary was recently cut by 5 percent and there has been grossly inadequate health and safety measures put in place to protect workers from contracting COVID.
The new Guild members say they look forward to being in a union so that they can have job security, a say in decisions that impact their work lives, fair standards for overtime, scheduling, and sick days, and decent pay that reflects the cost of living in the Toronto area.
The union victory is part of a recent wave of unionization in the North American media industry.
CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon welcomed the workers, saying they deserve much better from Postmedia.
“While Postmedia has been paying millions a year to its top executives and tens of millions to its hedge fund owners/lenders, the people that do the real work have been struggling to get by,” O’Hanlon said. “That’s simply not fair and it’s time to change things. These workers deserve a real voice in their workplace and the power to negotiate decent wages and working conditions.”
CMG National President Carmel Smyth said the union looks forward to helping all media workers improve their working conditions particularly during these exceptionally challenging times.
CWA Canada is the country’s only all-media union, representing 6,000 workers, including at the CBC, The Canadian Press, Thomson Reuters, VICE Canada, and newspapers coast to coast, including several Postmedia publications. Members of CWA Canada are members of The NewsGuild-CWA.