Editorial

Labour News suffers irregularity

Labour News has been publishing, more or less monthly, since the fall of 1993. Eight years of print deadlines have come and gone, with the inevitable 3:00 and 4:00 am grinds to get the paper to the printers the next morning.

Despite the aggravations associated with it, and the inevitable unevenness of quality that comes with never quite having the time to do the best possible job, I still believe that regular print publications like Labour News play a critical role in labour communications.

In the past eight years, the newspaper has had some genuinely excellent articles, and more than its share of thought provoking features and columns.

Labour News has won awards from the Canadian Association of Labour Media every year of its existence.

Now however, economic conditions make it impossible for the Alberta Federation of Labour to continue to publish Labour News on a regular basis. When an organization is forced to lay off staff, it cannot continue to spend money the way it has in the past. This is particularly true of a labour organization like the AFL.

Labour News costs the AFL, on average about $14,000 a year – after advertising revenues have been accounted for. Consequently, the AFL will now publish the newspaper only when there has been enough committed advertising to make an issue pay for itself.

As the only editor the paper has had, and as the person who most pressed for it to be created in the first place, I cannot pretend that I am not unhappy about this turn of events. I have high hopes that we can get out three or four issues a year now, but that in itself will change the kind of stories we can cover and the kind of publication we are.

On the other hand, Labour News never realized its intended potential. It was designed to be at least put in the hands of the majority of the rank and file union members in this province. That never happened – for many reasons.

Maybe it is time for everyone to reassess the effort and resources Labour News requires, and to see if another kind of vehicle could better meet the objectives of the AFL and the needs of the labour movement in the future.