By now you have probably read several articles about the Toronto Star’s recently-announced plan to outsource its page desk and most design work to Pagemasters North America. As we mentioned in our earlier communique, the Star’s union has the right under its collective agreement to develop and present an alternative plan that might reduce or eliminate the impact of the cuts. In the meantime, though, a voluntary separation program is being offered to affected Star employees, and Pagemasters has already started recruiting for an unspecified number of new positions.

The Canadian Media Guild has some reservations about the sequence and timing of events. We are requesting an urgent meeting with the company to try to get clarifications about how the changes at the Star will affect our members at Pagemasters or at The Canadian Press.

We have already told the company that we believe current Pagemasters employees who work on a part-time basis should have the opportunity to move into a full-time position if they’re interested and positions are available. We strongly encourage anyone who wants to move from part-time to full-time to submit an application for one of the new full-time positions.

Please contact Keith Maskell at keith@cmg.ca if you have questions or concerns. We will do our best to keep you up to date on developments.