Our History
Pay of $30 a week for six days of work, arbitrary firings, salary cuts, and ridiculous schedules. That's what brought the Guild to the newsrooms of Toronto in the Dirty Thirties. And since then, SONG has been working hard to get a better deal first for newspaper and now for employees across... READ MORE
But the need and desire for a union didn't die. In 1948, the Toronto Newspaper Guild was resurrected and was able to demonstrate majority support in the Star newsroom.
That meant it could be certified by the Ontario Labour Relations Board under newly enacted labour laws, with the result... READ MORE
When the Guild's first major strike came, it was at a small paper, and it was a messy one.
Employees at the Thomson-owned Oshawa Times walked out in 1966 in a two-week strike that became one of the biggest Canadian labour battles of the era. While the strike involved only 35 employees,... READ MORE
Throughout the period of expansion in the 1990s, the leadership of SONG became increasingly frustrated with the lack of attention and service that the Newspaper Guild's Washington head office was providing to Canadians. After a long and unsuccessful campaign for more Canadian autonomy within the... READ MORE
In 2008, SONG expanded in a big way to the Ottawa area where we'd already organized the Ottawa Sun.
Beginning in January, 2008, we added seven media units from the former Local 102-O, including the House of Commons broadcast/technical group, the Ottawa Citizen mailroom, the Winchester... READ MORE