Photos by striking Herald photographers

"You're never alone when you join a union," Alberta 34M Pres. John Webster said of GCIU friends who joined him on the Calgary Herald picket line. From left are: Webster; GCIU Vice Pres.-elect Duncan K. Brown; Toronto 100M Pres. Brian Fletcher; Vancouver 25C Secy.-Treas. John Savage; and Local 100M Secy.-Treas. George Novak, GCIU General Board member.

As the GCIU press unit entered a mandatory "cooling off" period at the Calgary Herald at Graphic Communicator press time, the strike at the Hollinger-owned newspaper heated up with reports that the company's profits are plummeting.

Some 70 members of Alberta 34M's new unit of distribution, loading dock, machine shop, and press cleaning workers and about 100 new members of the editorial unit represented by Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 115A struck the Calgary Herald on Nov. 8. They charged Hollinger management with bad faith bargaining on first-time contracts.

The contract for 100 Local 34M pressmen, mailers, and platemakers at the Calgary Herald expired on March 31. As required by Alberta labor law, the union went into mandatory mediation in the last week of March.

On the last night of mediation, the company made an offer to settle, but Local 34M Pres. John Webster called the offer "a clear attempt to divide union members."

"No one has forgotten that this employer put 170 people out on the street in a strike now in its fifth month," Webster said. He said the bargaining committee unanimously rejected the offer and will recommend against it at the membership vote scheduled for April 8.

Meanwhile, GCIU Rep. Alan M. Tate, who is assisting Local 34M with negotiations and the strike, said the local asked mediator Dale Simpson to "book out," which means he will write a letter to the union and management declining to submit a report on the mediation because the parties are too far apart. Under Alberta law, the release of Simpson's letter launches a 14-day "cooling off" period, Tate said. Only after the cooling off period and after approval by the Alberta Labour Board can a strike vote be taken, he said.

Tate reported that the Edmonton 255C press unit with about 50 members at the Hollinger-owned Edmonton Journal also is bargaining on a contract that expired Dec. 31, 1999. The unit applied for mediation at the end of March.

Svend Robinson, a New Democratic Party member of Parliament from Burnaby-Douglas, B.C., joins the picket line at Conrad Black's Hollinger newspaper, the Calgary Herald.

Hollinger is controlled by newspaper baron Conrad Black, who denies that labor's advertising and subscription boycotts are impacting his profits. However, the Globe and Mail reported that Hollinger's fourth quarter profits fell 95 percent to $2.6 million. The per share profit fell to seven cents from $1.58 per share a year ago, according to the report.

But there is little sign that Black, who flaunts his anti-union, right-wing views, is reconsidering his negotiating stance. In a recent confrontation with CEP Local 115A Pres. Andy Marshall, Black said of the strikers: "We're amputating our gangrenous limbs. If, by the grace of conversion, they want to function as employees instead of staging an NDP coup d'etat in the newsroom, they'll be welcome." Black was referring to the labor-backed New Democratic Party.

The oblique religious references in Black's attack on union members provoked a response from F.B. Henry, the Roman Catholic bishop of Calgary. Henry said Black's comments reveal "more than a few gaps in Black's understanding of Christian social teaching which has been a staunch defender of the right to unionize and of the need for strong unionism in our society."

The strikers continue to receive strong union and community support. CEP Local 2000 members at the Vancouver Province held up production for four hours to protest the paper's use of photos taken by a Herald scab photographer. First newsroom workers refused to handle the pages with the scab's photos. After a manager transferred the work to the production plant, engravers there also refused to make plates for the four pages. Following an emergency Labour Relations Board hearing at midnight, the union members were ordered back to work.

Strikers at the Calgary Herald urgently need the support of all GCIU locals and members to stop Conrad Black's union-busting.

Alberta 34M John Webster thanked GCIU locals and members and community groups for their support, which is helping to keep the strike food bank running as well as helping members with other needs.

Checks, made payable to GCIU Local 34M Strike Fund, may be sent to 3424 26th Street, N.E., #2A, Calgary, Alberta, T1Y 4T7