Union looks to represent press room employees at Postmedia plant in Toronto

TORONTO — The Canadian Media Guild has applied to be certified as the union representative of press room workers at Postmedia’s Toronto printing plant.

The union, which is a local of CWA Canada, says it filed its application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board on Monday after a majority of the plant’s staff signed union cards.

It isn’t disclosing how many people signed.

Postmedia said in an email that it respects that employees have the right to file for certification. It also said it has received the application and will be reviewing it.

The union says the printing plant’s workers have endured years of cuts to pay, hours, bonuses, vacation and benefits _ including wage cuts introduced since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The newspaper publisher has said it expects to qualify for at least $20.3 million in federal emergency wage subsidies due to the coronavirus pandemic, but that won’t cover lost revenue.

Postmedia said last month that it would lay off about 40 unionized employees after their unions rejected a request for wage reductions for all staff. Non-union employees have had temporarily wage cuts ranging, from five per cent to 30 per cent for president and chief executive Andrew MacLeod.