user preferences

New Events

North America / Mexico

no event posted in the last week

TorStar On the Rampage

category north america / mexico | workplace struggles | news report author Monday August 15, 2005 04:07author by Wesley Morgan - Punching Out (NEFAC)author email punchingout at nefac dot netauthor address PO box 79538, 1995 Weston Rd., Toronto, Ontario, M9N 3W9, Canada Report this post to the editors

Workers Fight For Equality

HAMILTON - TorStar, the corporation that owns the Toronto Star, controls virtually all southern Ontario newspaper media west of Toronto. A six month strike of 60 inserters, press operators, and pre-production staff working for a company owned by TorStar has been virtually silenced thanks to TorStar’s reach.

HAMILTON - TorStar, the corporation that owns the Toronto Star, controls virtually all southern Ontario newspaper media west of Toronto. A six month strike of 60 inserters, press operators, and pre-production staff working for a company owned by TorStar has been virtually silenced thanks to TorStar’s reach.

Brabant Newspapers is owned by CityMedia Group, and publishes five local papers in the Hamilton area. On strike since last December, Brabant workers are fighting for pay equity. Twenty-six of the strikers are women, who earned a maximum of $8.99/hour about $1.52 less than male counterparts.

The company hired strike breakers, and waited six months before closing the inserting operation in Brabant, firing all 26 women seeking pay equity, and threatening to fire any remaining strikers who did not surrender.

In June, ten of the fired women workers occupied TorStar CEO Rob Pritchard’s Yonge Street offices, forcing him back to the table. TorStar returned to the table only to make a final offer with no improvements, without even allowing for the re-instatement of fired workers.

Throughout the TorStar media empire, in places like Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Guelph, not to mention Toronto, there is good reason to be concerned. CityMedia reported that they squeezed an extra $7.7 million from their workers in the first half of 2004 alone.

CEO Rob Pritchard recently gave himself a 13% raise, more than 3 times what the 60 workers, added together, are seeking per year. The union, the CEP (Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers Union), is calling for a boycott of all TorStar products. If you would like to let TorStar and Brabant know how you feel about their attacks on workers and women, call:

Robert Prichard,
Torstar Corporate Office, One Yonge Street, Toronto, Canada, M5E 1P9;
Telephone: (416) 869-4010;
Fax: (416) 869-4183;
Email: torstar@torstar.ca

OR

Jagoda Pike;
City Media; 44 Frid Street ; Hamilton, ON, L8N 3G3;
phone: 905-526-3431;
Email: jpike@thespec.com

Related Link: http://www.nefac.net
author by mickpublication date Mon Aug 15, 2005 04:55author address author phone Report this post to the editors

sorry I forgot to include this note when I submitted the article.

--------------------------
This article is from the August issue of Strike! - A newsletter of anarchist news and commentary published in Ontario, Canada.
To download a pdf file of the newsletter go to:
http://users.resist.ca/~gidget/nefac/strike/aug_strike1.PDF

 
This page can be viewed in
English Italiano Deutsch
© 2005-2024 Anarkismo.net. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Anarkismo.net. [ Disclaimer | Privacy ]