La Presse still on the path to destruction

In case you forgot, La Presse is about a month away from being shut down.

Negotiations between the paper and its unions have apparently been stalled, prompting editor Guy Crevier to send out a letter to employees, which lays out some of the employer’s offer. They have withdrawn their demand for salary cuts, but are still demanding a five-day work week, laying off 48 people in distribution, and moving from a defined-benefit pension plan to a defined-contribution plan for new employees.

The unions responded with a letter of their own, saying they have accepted the principal demand of moving to a five-day work week but that the employer is refusing to negotiate on compromises. They say they will ask for a conciliator to be brought in.

6 thoughts on “La Presse still on the path to destruction

  1. CT Moore

    I wonder what the logistics of the union buying it would be. After all, it’s worked for some factory workers.

    Of course, in this case, the union would be walking some fine link between a hostile takeover and subversive inside trading.

    Reply
  2. Steven

    No chance the union buys it. La Presse will lose 26M$ this year, and Power already erased 100M$ in debt in june.
    Union workers know they need to give something to save the company.

    Reply
  3. Jean Naimard

    Let’s call the bluff.

    Desmarais is bluffing big-time.

    La Presse is Desmarais’ mouthpiece; with it, he can manipulate public opinion to suit his ends (hint: it’s not the people’s welfare). He has used La Presse to thwart the Québec sovereignty movement (Desmarais know very well that a sovereign Québec would never tolerate his antics), and to suggest that he would willingly scrap it is laughable.

    I wish I was wrong because the demise of La Presse would immensely help sovereignty by removing the major stumbling block.

    Reply

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