Workload and how to deal with it were No. 1 on our agenda as we concluded our second week of negotiations with The Canadian Press.

We know this is an issue that is important to many of you. Fewer people doing more work is not a formula that can succeed in the long term. The likelihood of adding staff in the short term also is not expected to be a solution at The Canadian Press. So we are discussing a range of constructive ways to look at the work we do and ease the strain on our members.

We received a detailed financial presentation from CFO David Ross and Controller Dan Monteith. We cannot go into details because the information is confidential from a business standpoint. But it should come as no surprise that the company’s finances are tight, as they have been for several years.

As you know, all employees have agreed to suspend three years of pension contributions to help the company restructure. Those talks also continued last week. We are making significant progress but have nothing more detailed to report at this time. The Guild representatives are pension trustees Scott Edmonds and Craig Wong, staff representative Kathy Viner and Canadian Press Branch President Terry Pedwell.

This year in contract talks, management’s bargaining committee is HR Director Paul Woods, Ontario Bureau Chief Wendy McCann, Customer Service Supervisor Joe Sintzel and legal counsel Harvey Beresford.

Because of the Olympics and other commitments, bargaining of a new contract is not scheduled to resume until the last week of March; however work will continue on restructuring issues.

Your Bargaining Committee

Scott Edmonds
Fareed Mohammed
Terry Pedwell
Sylvia Strojek
Kathy Viner