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New media 'flexibility' another name for exploitation |
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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, to require unpaid overtime, to fire us on a whim,
but what flexibility did we have?
"The flexibility was one sided."
The unfairness of their situation got Wattie and a co-worker thinking
about joining a union and the CEP was the natural choice because it is
the union for most other Toronto Star employees, including the
newsroom, clerical and sales staff.
"We learned how much less we were being paid than the rest of the
Toronto Star employees and the only difference between them and us is
they belonged to a union," said Wattie, of a situation he says still
prevails in much of the industry. "We were pretty primed to join."
The certification vote was over 80 per cent in favour of the union, and
in their contracts since, the bargaining unit has achieved an average
pay hike of 30 per cent plus "some of the best job security in the
business," says Wattie.
The 34-year-old, who has worked on Torstar's web sites for over seven
years, has seen the industry's good times in the late 1990s turn into
the much leaner new millennium.
"The new media is not so new anymore," he says. "I think more and more
people in this industry are seeing that this is not some short-term
job, but rather their career.
"Are you going to work 60 hours a week when you have a family? What
about a pension? What about benefits? These are the sort questions
people are asking themselves."
For Wattie the obvious answer to address the power imbalance that
results in "flexibility" for the employer and poor pay for the people
doing the work is joining a union.
"People need to get over their fear of unions," he says. "Our education
and experience in this business needs to be recognized and the only way
to make it happen seems to be through collective bargaining.
"When we contacted the union they were honest with us — people
appreciated that — and helped us get through the process. I can
understand why people are nervous, but they shouldn’t be."
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