By Joanne Ramondt, CEP 115A

Spirits were buoyed for striking Calgary Herald employees when hundreds of labour supporters from across the province came together for a massive Remembrance Day rally in front of the newspaper plant.

An estimated 800 supporters attended the rally which clogged streets and entrances around the southeast Calgary plant and ultimately led to the next day’s paper being extremely late.

"People obviously wanted to send a strong message to the Herald and to Conrad Black," Audrey Cormack, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said. "Albertans and workers are not prepared to have their voices silenced by a very powerful right-wing owner."

Cormack, who attended the rally, said the strike is a bit different for the Federation in that most Alberta strikes involve industrial or public sector workers. "This involves media and that’s a different group of workers, so that presents a challenge but is likely a sign of the future when we hear jobs will be more technologically oriented," said Cormack. "At the same time, it doesn’t matter what the jobs are, workers are workers and across the board, they want protection and are willing to go to the boards to protect those jobs."

According to union organizers, it was unprecedented in Alberta to have that kind of support after only four days on the picket line. It is seen as a gauge of the anger organized labour feels over the treatment of the workers by local management acting on behalf media mogul Conrad Black who owns the Calgary Herald and other Southam newspapers.

In all, 163 members of Local 115A of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, representing Herald writers, editors, photographers, librarians and support staff, as well as 67 members of the Local 34M of the GCIU, representing distribution workers, have been on strike since November 8. Both groups are seeking first contracts after certifying just over a year ago. CEP members are seeking basic seniority provisions, benefits, guarantee of a wage grid and provisions to ensure contract workers do not replace full-time workers. GCIU workers are seeking a wage grid, hours of work provisions and recognition of seniority and overtime. They are also resisting an attempt by the company to roll back their salaries. Some of these members make only $9 hourly.

Both unions served 72-hour strike notice November 5 but members were told the following day, when their shifts were completed, that they were not to return to work. The unions viewed this as a lockout and members manned picket lines. The company immediately had in place security forces brought in from Ontario as well as replacement workers flown in from other provinces. Replacement workers are being paid hundreds of dollars daily, put up in hotels and given rented cars.

News media coverage of the strike has been massive, with the Globe and Mail taking advantage of the situation to ship in extra writers and produce a daily Calgary edition. The Sun is wrapping its paper with a mock Herald front page for home subscribers.

Of particular interest to the media was the firing of 22-year-old Herald movie reviewer Mike Boon for walking the picket line. Boon, who works at the Herald as a part-time editorial assistant and is a member of CEP, freelanced his movie reviews on a per-review basis, writing three to four a week. He has become a popular figure in Calgary and has been featured in a recent Herald advertising campaign, including large billboards, with Chicago-based movie reviewer, Roger Ebert. Boon was earning only $50 per review, well under $10 per hour for what is considered one of the most important jobs in entertainment reporting.

Union organizers feel the strike is going well, with highly trained, highly skilled, multi-talented members manning picket lines and fanning out into the community.

"Spirits are good, we are making good progress and getting the attention of the company," says Andy Marshall, president of Local 115A of CEP. "The rally was a wonderful demonstration of our strength and the wide support we have in Calgary and across the province."

John Webster, president of Local 34M of the Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) representing Herald distribution centre workers, agreed, saying he’d "never seen anything like it."

"It was tremendous outpouring of support from the labour community. I’m sure it was a surprise and a shock to the publisher," said Webster.

Although the Herald characterized the mass picket as a union mob scene, police told local media it was generally peaceful.

"We have to appreciate that when you have mass pickets and police come out in the force and the company hires security forces there is always the potential for incidents as workers push back," said Cormack.

"People came to the rally with the best of intentions and it may at times have gotten a bit rowdy but no more so than usual," she said.

Cormack said she may not have agreed with the role the police played, including escorting scab workers across picket lines, but said most did their jobs well. Other observers were concerned that police escorted scab workers, commenting that police in Edmonton are reluctant to carry out that kind of role after criticism of their early handling of the divisive Gainers strike some years ago.

The striking workers have expressed surprise and gratitude for the tremendous union support they have received. "We are accumulating a debt that we will be honoured to repay when others face intransigent employers," said Marshall.