There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it could be a train that hits hard and very, very hard.
Quebecor filed a settlement proposal to end the labor dispute at the Journal de Montreal that lasts and lasts from January 24, 2009. The CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau in person, announced this big surprise last week. The mediation process is continuing for a month.
Nothing official filter of this arbitration. Representatives of both sides of this interminable trench warfare respect a total camera. The content of the employer's offer remains as recent secret.
Patience, then. Meanwhile, to better understand the painful exercise that takes place behind lock tight, we can fall back on the proposed regulation that was filed by the owner, an open secret discussed all sides in the media world, but never broadcast date.
According to the preliminary settlement plan, Quebecor would have retained 17 journalists in its new newsroom. Repeat: 17 out of the approximately 66 reporters locked out, making one in four, roughly. In addition, according to this perspective, management would select them one by one, without regard to seniority.
At the start of the lockout, the union representing 253 members multisectoral. The preliminary proposal only saved a total of five, fifty what. In this small lot, there would be twenty clerks, including a dozen positions to classified ads and even then they may decrease in number at the discretion of management, depending on the workload. The new hall would therefore maintain a thirty posts, no cartoonist or editor, but four photographers, a handful of graphic artists and heads of desk, and then the 17 journalists.
These figures are not conditional on confirmed and will not, both parties respecting the lockout informational. The proposals can be changed upward or downward in the proposal filed last week. Maybe or maybe not. In any case, employees may find themselves much less likely to leave the underground where they eke out a living for about 20 months.
This is another very serious potential adverse effect of conflict. A few dozen executives realize Le Journal de Montreal, which sells and distributes as much for some 600 days. The boss seems tempted to reduce its "human resources" accordingly. After all, according to this logic managerial, why hire 253 people for the job if a quarter or half the number do the trick?
The stalemate in the conflict and this proposal (not confirmed) claiming a sort of collective hara-kiri explain the forces of this flagship of the fleet of Quebecor into the water one by one to save their skins ... before they are almost all scales simultaneously overboard.
Former colleagues of the Journal de Montreal now working in the communications department of a city, relations with the media of a school board, etc.. Many are active for the excellent site RueFrontenac.com, a creature of locked. Some have managed to put in another medium.
This is the case Fabrice de Pierrebourg, one of the best journalists and investigators today. His recruitment by La Presse was announced in July, barely a year after the company had claimed its employees major concessions. This good watchdog was all the more reason to breed also was among the nine 'Leaders' union dismissed after a court decision finding them guilty of contempt of court for having entered the Local JDEM a year earlier, with more than 100 other employees.
At the same time as the hiring of this big keyboard, the daily also announced that regularized the status of supernumerary illico transformed into permanent employees. As luck, providence of unbelievers, makes funny links, the measure has positively contributed 17 journalists, 17 ...
The spokesman Gesca owned by Power Corporation, owner of La Presse, denies a connection between this and that. The spokesman for the union establishes a quite the contrary, since, according to union claims, he must first resolve the fate of supernumerary (some waiting in the wings for four years), before hiring the recruit selection. In short, Mr. de Pierrebourg would shield a little help from 17 posts to qualify for the 18th ... which is better than being in the face.
There is barely a year, La Presse claimed his employees major concessions to save the company. Approximately 17,000 employees of U.S. media have lost their jobs in 2009, a year lockout at Le Journal de Montréal. The deep crisis, and that newspapers in particular, increases the bad and the amazing surprises ...
