Chronicle Herald refuses to return to bargaining table: striking union
Posted Mar 14, 2016 03:27:53 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Newsroom employees at Canada’s largest independent daily newspaper say management refuses to return to the bargaining table as a strike enters its seventh week.
The Halifax Typographical Union, which represents 59 editorial staff at the Chronicle Herald, says it reached out to management through a conciliator, but the company said it didn’t feel the union was ready to make concessions.
The union says before the strike started on Jan. 23, they offered to agree to a five per cent wage cut, a cap on severance pay, reduced mileage rates and fewer vacation days.
But it says the company is insisting on about 1,200 changes that would “gut” the existing collective agreement.
The union says those changes include longer work weeks, drastically reduced severance provisions and the elimination of job security.
Union president Ingrid Bulmer says they are willing to return to the bargaining table at any time.
The Herald did not return a request for comment Saturday.
