Both sides, naturally, blame the other for failing to negotiate. In reality, both sides have held firm on their demands since the contract expired on Dec. 31, and a lockout has been all but inevitable.
Journal management plan to continue publishing during the lockout. The union is also planning a publication called Rue Frontenac.
In what has become the norm for journalist labour disruptions ever since the Journal de Québec’s incredibly successful MédiaMatinQuébec, the union built ruefrontenac.com, a website which they will use to continue working as journalists. Unlike MMQ, there are no plans for a print version of the paper. Right now the website contains a video with black-and-white pictures of locked-out employees.
This lockout dispute are the result of management demands for changes to the existing contract that the union has refused to consider. They include:
- Increasing the work week from 30 hours (4 days) to 37.5 hours (5 days), with no extra pay
- Laying off 75 employees
- 25% pay cut for classified employees
- 20% reduction in benefits for all
- Clauses that would give new hires fewer rights than existing employees
- Flexibility to reassign workers to do multimedia work for the website
Workers that are in lockout declare outright that anyone who does their work (24 Heures employees, Journal de Québec employees, or those of mysterious fly-by-night news agencies) are scabs, and they call on advertisers and readers to boycott the paper.
This last issue is creating a big problem in the world of press photography. 24h as since lost an employee. My friend got hired to become the spare photographer. Since, I have seen a lot of people talking bad about him. His only trying to feed is 2 kids and pay for is apartment.
What would you do?
Source: Fagstein blog
Sébastien D'Amour - wedding and lifestyle photography artist.
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2 comments:
In addition to being a photographer, I'm also an actor, and a member of Equity, the stage actor's union in the United States.
Occasionally, Equity or the film (SAG) or television (AFTRA) union will strike, and some very tempting plum jobs will open up for struggling actors willing to cross the picket lines.
NEVER EVER DO THIS unless you have NO ambitions of ever working in the industry ever again after the strike is over. The unions' memories are long. There are a lot of talented people out there, and no one wants to work with a scab. In a business built on professional contacts (and both photography and performing fit into that category) you've pretty much poisoned your well forever.
You should be careful when cutting and pasting someone else's blog post to at least cite the source. Otherwise it's considered plagiarism.
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