Workers join together in a union to bargain a collective
agreement — a legally binding contract that outlines working conditions,
benefits, wages, hours of work and more.
Job security
A union can get your job back if you are fired without just
cause. With no union, good luck — a wrongful dismissal suit might get you a
little money, that’s all.
Higher pay
Jobs covered by a union contract pay an average of 32% more
than jobs that are not.
Better working
conditions
From hours of work to health and safety to harassment protection,
unionized workers have it better. The CEP will be there when you need help.
Grievance procedure
A union contract will spell out steps to take if you have a
grievance against your employer, a supervisor or co-worker. A union will pay
for a lawyer if necessary.
Families benefit
A union will improve the quality of life for your family
too. One example — health and dental plans cover spouses and children. Many
contracts offer leave for family needs.
Communities benefit
Union members earning decent wages build financially stable
and healthy communities.
Everybody benefits
Unions are the reason we have pensions, minimum wage, health
and safety laws and maternity leave. Even Medicare was something unions fought
for and won.
Management in new media is fond of saying we can't have a union
because we need flexibility says Craig Wattie. But flexibility for
whom, asks the Internet producer at Torstar.
Before we joined the union, management had the flexibility to not pay
us on time, to pay some people less than others doing the same job, to
provide no sick days, ...
A concern about the fairness of layoffs and an informal discussion in
the station parking lot started the process leading to a May 2004 first
union contract at the New PL, owned by CHUM, says morning news anchor
Bob Smith.
The parking lot conversation in 2002 during which one co-worker said
what about a union? got Smith thinking about the benefits that a
collective ...
Attitudes can change and people suddenly see the need for a collective
agreement, even in notoriously anti-union workplaces, says a Toronto
Sun editor who experienced the phenomena.
For more than thirty years The Sun was the only non-union daily in
Toronto, says Brad Honywill. People thought it would remain that way
forever but then one day in 2002 the vast majority of ...
Working at the Langley Times has changed a lot since the community
newspaper became unionized, says Al Irwin, a reporter who was a member
of the internal organizing committee more than a decade ago.
I guess most important for me are the better wages and stability --
getting the union in here meant I could rely on this job to provide for
my ...
CEP Media Organizing 
