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 ...