Postmedia union drive

Postmedia/Sun Media Division employees in Simcoe County launch organizing drive 

BARRIE, April 27, 2016 -- Employees in the Sun Media Division of Postmedia launched a union organizing drive today to deliver the benefits of collective bargaining to fellow media workers in Simcoe County.

Unifor Local 87-M delivered a letter announcing the union drive to Postmedia management this morning in both Barrie and Toronto.  Unifor Local 87-M currently represents several hundred Postmedia/Sun Media employees at other newspapers and websites in Ontario. Unifor Local 87-M also represents employees at Metroland Media’s Barrie Advance and Midland Mirror newspapers.

“Unionized Sun Media – now Postmedia – employees have long benefitted from having collective agreements,” said Paul Morse, president of Unifor Local 87-M. “They’ve made advances in wages, benefits and pensions, among many other improvements.

“Non-union Postmedia employees, however, are struggling with years of wage freezes and clawbacks in benefits. Clearly, they’ve decided to change that by unionizing.”

Employees at area newspapers such as the Barrie Examiner, Bradford Times, Innisfil Examiner, and the Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin say they have gone several years without a pay increase while Postmedia executives recently received almost a million dollars in bonuses.

Unifor Local 87-M represents about 2,500 media workers in Ontario, including 14 Sun Media newspapers and the Canoe website, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and Hamilton Spectator.

Unifor is Canada's largest private sector union, representing more than 300,000 workers. As a national union, Unifor represents about 14,500 unionized media workers across Canada.

Contact:

Local 87-M President Paul Morse, cell 905-536-5650

Local 87-M Rep Brad Honywill, cell 905-334-9259.