CEP Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada

About 1,000 employees of the Winnipeg Free Press will walk off the job at noon on Thanksgiving Monday unless Vancouver-based Free Press owner Ron Stern agrees to drop concessions and get serious about bargaining.

A rally to kick-off the strike is planned for noon in front of the Free Press building at 1355 Mountain Ave.

“A strike seems inevitable given Vancouver-based owner Ron Stern’s position that it’s all his concessions or no contract,” said Paul McKie, CEP National Representative. “Clearly the absentee owner has no regard for the Free Press workers or the Winnipeggers who rely on it for their news.”

CEP represents nearly all Free Press employees, including newspaper carriers, staff in editorial, advertising, circulation, technical maintenance and the mailroom and pressroom. It also represents staff at Canstar Community News.

A strike would halt production and distribution of the Free Press and community newspapers like The Herald, The Lance, The Metro, The Times, The Headliner, Uptown and Prime Times.

Vancouver-based co-owner Ron Stern and Publisher Bob Cox want to eliminate as many as 44 skilled jobs without a fair severance deal, cut the pay of afternoon and night staff by five to 10 per cent and force carriers to deliver more for less money and shrink benefits for part-time workers.

So far, there has been only one day of real bargaining – on Thursday. The union is now waiting for the company to respond to our latest offer.

"We'll bargain anywhere, anytime," said McKie. "But we can't accept take-backs like these that chip away at our quality of life and cost our members good-paying jobs."

CEP Local 191 represents about 1,800 media workers at companies such as The Brandon Sun, The Winnipeg Sun, Naylor Publications, Transcontinental LGM, and the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal. CEP represents 150,000 working people coast to coast in energy, paper, telecommunications, graphical, media and is Canada’s largest printing and media union.