Fonds F0080 - Calgary Herald Union fonds.

On October 13th 1998, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union (CEP) of Canada petitioned the Alberta Labour Relations Board for certification to represent all editorial employees of the Calgary Herald. Since 1996, changes in personnel and editorial style had resulted in deep dissatisfaction amongst editorial staff. At that time, publisher Kevin Peterson had just resigned and Ken King, former editor of the Calgary Sun had taken Peterson's place. Frustration in the newsroom had been increasing over 'drive-by editing' where stories were altered without consultation or recourse, editorial control became primarily that of upper-level management and any attempt to discuss the issues was regularly discouraged. A vote by newsroom employees on October 29th 1998 yielded a result of more than 75% in favour of certification and on November 6th the Alberta Labour Relations Board issued a certification notice to cover 'all editorial employees of the Calgary Herald'. The union served notice to the Calgary Herald on December 4th that their representatives were ready to commence collective bargaining for their first collective agreement. During the same period, a similar process had occurred with distribution staff, pressroom workers and machine-shop employees. A new local of the Graphic Communications International union (GCIU), Local 34-M had been certified with the members now also seeking a collective agreement.

Bargaining began on January 14th 1999 but by the middle of April the editorial staff and the CEP had logged only 91 hours of relatively unproductive bargaining sessions. The GCIU talks had been slightly more productive with several agreement clauses ratified and signed off. However, both unions now found themselves stalled over standard issues such as job security, seniority and management's refusal to agree to any type of salary grid. The CEP brought in mediator Dick Campion in May and made some progress in signing off on a grievance process, discipline and discharge procedures. Also in May, there was a change of managerial staff at the Calgary Herald when Dan Gaynor replaced Ken King as publisher. Gaynor had previous experience with strike action during his time as manager of the St. Catherine's Standard when the editorial staff there struck for three weeks in 1998.

The talks between the Calgary Herald and the CEP continued slowly throughout the summer of 1999 culminating on August 27th when the CEP tabled nine key issues that they considered fundamental to any collective agreement. On September 16th the Calgary Herald categorically rejected all nine issues which included two lynch pin proposals covering seniority rights and orderly progression through a salary grid. Following this rejection, the editorial staff voted 82.5% in favour of strike action on October 6th, followed by two all-day bargaining sessions on October 26th and 28th. The GCIU also had marathon bargaining sessions on November 1st and 2nd in an attempt to close the gap between management and the union. By November 5th, it was obvious that agreement could not be reached and both unions served 72-hour strike notice on the Calgary Herald. The strike officially began on November 8th 1999.

Dan Gaynor had prepared throughout the fall for a possible strike. He had brought in security guards, installed video monitors and plexi-glass screens, trained replacements for distribution workers and made preparations to bring in 'permanent replacement staff' in the newsroom. His preparations resulted in little disruption to the production of the newspaper once the strike began. In response, the striking employees countered with several publicity campaigns. These included leafleting neighborhoods with information on the issues, letter campaigns urging advertisers to suspend their business from the Calgary Herald, sticker campaigns on the Calgary Herald vending boxes and public demonstrations and rallies to gain support. Striking Calgary Herald employees were joined periodically on the picket lines by local and national authors and playwrights and Members of the Legislative Assembly. Numerous unions, companies and individuals also demonstrated both their monetary and moral support for the strike action. Cyber-pickets were organized by the CEP Local 2000 in Vancouver and the striking Calgary Herald employees set up their own local web-site where photographs of 'scab' workers were posted daily along with news of the strike action. A National Day of Protest was organized for February 8th 2000 followed by a rally and May Day protest march to mark the strike's six-month anniversary. The unions filed several 'unfair labour practice' complaints with the Alberta Labour Relations Board. These included complaints regarding bargaining in bad faith, a dispute over the firing of a deputy news editor for placing two stickers on Calgary Herald vending machines, a lengthy complaint involving the rights of editorial staff to engage in freelance activities, defamation cases and copyright disputes.

The strike continued for over eight months. In early June 2000 the GCIU workers were offered a four-year contract with a 3% wage hike in the first year and 2.5% increase in the following three years. The GCIU Local 34-M voted 72-22 in favor of ratifying the agreement with the Calgary Herald; they returned to work on June 11th, 2000.

Discouraged over the length of time and lack of progress of the strike action, the remaining CEP striking workers directed their bargaining committee to drop the seniority clause from the list of contract demands in an attempt to facilitate a return to the bargaining table. The Calgary Herald countered with new proposals, including the issue of return-to-work conditions that would involve restructuring the newsroom with the replacement workers already hired. Dave Coles, the CEP bargaining agent met with the Calgary Herald and returned with two options: to drag out the bargaining and the strike action until all issues were resolved, or to decertify the union and either return to work with a no-recriminations guarantee or accept a buyout package. The buyout package would ensure four weeks of salary for each year of service, references and access to job search and career planning paid for by the Calgary Herald. Those who might choose to return to work would be interviewed and assigned a position within the newsroom, receiving the same pay and benefits they had before the strike. Those who might choose to return to work would also have no guarantee of job security, an issue that had been one of the major obstacles in the bargaining process. The editorial staff voted 68% in favour of decertification and on June 30th, 2000 the strike ended. The majority of the editorial staff opted for the buy-out package and did not return to work at the Calgary Herald.