One unit is tiny, representing a grand total of two platemakers (a position the Gazette wants to abolish because of advances in technology). The other is larger, representing 20 full-time employees and many more part-time and temporary employees in the mailroom.

Because of my obvious conflict of interest with this case (and, frankly, my lack of familiarity with the issues), I won't comment on it. But I'll post this for the record and link to coverage elsewhere, which discusses the main issues (hours of work is a major one):

• Radio-Canada
• CTV
• Presse Canadienne
• Agence QMI (TVA Nouvelles)

Or, of course, you can get it from the horse's mouths. The Gazette's story is here. The union's press release is here.

For the sake of clarity, I'll point out that most departments at The Gazette are unaffected by this lockout. Editorial, advertising and other employees who work downtown are part of an entirely separate union, the Montreal Newspaper Guild. The people who actually deliver newspapers to your doors (well, the few of you who still get home delivery of a newspaper these days) are also not affected. The plan is for the paper to continue being produced, and so far that is exactly what has happened, with managers filling in for locked-out employees.

In meta news, Montreal City Weblog's Kate McDonnell has said she will no longer link to Gazette stories online until the lockout is settled (she did the same thing for the Journal de Montréal during its lockout).

And I couldn't help but notice that someone at Le Devoir seems to have confused The Gazette with an Old Montreal restaurant called gaZette that opened up where the paper's offices used to be almost a decade ago:

This is not The Gazette

UPDATE: Le Devoir's error also made it into the print edition, with a huge photo.

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Turnout was 76% of the 109 editorial employees.

The workers have been without a contract since the summer of 2008, so wages have been frozen since then. The increases (besides the signing bonus) apply to the three years following ratification, up to 2014.

Among the features of the new contract:

• Reporters can be asked to shoot video without additional compensation.
• Permanent part-timers will have pro-rated paid vacation, as well as a guaranteed two consecutive days off a week.
• Photographers get an increased car allowance, adjusted based on gas prices. Permanent photographers are also protected against layoff during the contract as a result of reporters shooting video.
• Shift differentials (paid to employees for each shift worked before 7 am or after 7pm) increase from $8 to $12

The contract also included controversial language that redefines how seniority is calculated. Previously, many workers in editorial were given leave or alternate work arrangements (working fewer days a week) on the understanding that their seniority would not be affected. A letter of understanding with the new contract means time worked after May 2007 will be calculated based on actual days worked.

The Gazette has also agreed to post three new permanent full-time positions in the editorial department: two reporters and an online copy editor. This measure is designed to cut down on the numbers of "permatemps" who have worked non-stop but don't yet enjoy the benefits of permanent status. Some have been working for up to nine years. (UPDATE April 22: City reporter Max Harrold, business/tech reporter Jason Madger and sports/online copy editor Kevin Mio have been made full-time permanent as of May 8.)

The editorial department voted in January 2009 against a contract that called for larger union concessions.

Three other smaller departments also voted on contract offers (with similar provisions for salary and benefits):

• The IT department voted unanimously (4-0) in favour
• The Reader Sales and Service department voted 7-4 (64%) in favour
• The Business department voted unanimously (0-4) against their contract. They return to the bargaining table.

UPDATE: A brief in The Gazette and a press release from the CWA union.

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After a 10-hour session inside a closed meeting at the Palais des Congrès, members of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l'information du Journal de Montréal voted 64.1% to approve a proposal by the mediator that will finally end the lockout that began on Jan. 24, 2009.

A back-to-work protocol still needs to be worked out. And approval is contingent on this being negotiated successfully. But it's unlikely anything will stop this deal from getting final approval.

The deal, which lasts five years, will see the Journal hire back 62 workers (plus one temporary worker), which includes:

• 24 journalists (12 in news, seven in sports and five in arts)
• five deskers
• four photographers
• four graphic artists
• an editorial cartoonist (assuming Marc Beaudet wants to return)
• a statistician (plus a part-time or temporary one)
• two quality control people
• one "adjointe"
• 10 people in classified (nine salespeople and one customer service agent)
• 10 people in the business office, including two accountants

The rest will share a $20 million severance package, whose method of splitting is up to them (something expected to cause a lot of tension as they decide how to calculate how much each worker gets). For those of them lucky enough to get the choice, they'll have two weeks to decide whether they want to rejoin their former newspaper.

Almost all of the Rue Frontenac personalities I talked to later Saturday night had already made up their minds: "No fucking way" are they going back to work for Quebecor, in the words of journalist Jessica Nadeau. Though some left open a slim possibility that they might accept a return, not wanting to close the door completely out of anger without thinking about it first, most of the core of Rue Frontenac made it abundantly clear that they are going to stay outside the grip of the Quebecor empire and try to make an independent publication of Rue Frontenac and RueFrontenac.com.

The contract is over 100 pages long and I'm just getting my first look at it. I'll post more details in the days ahead, but suffice it to say this is a huge victory for Quebecor and a giant defeat for the union.

But at least some people will get some money out of it.

As you wait for more of my thoughts, you'll find coverage of this story ... well, just about anywhere:

• The Gazette
• Le Devoir (which mentions how pissed off union members were that they found out the result of the vote via the media)
• Radio-Canada
• Cyberpresse (Presse Canadienne)
• Globe and Mail
• CTV
• Canadian Press
• Le Soleil
• Agence QMI
• QMI Agency
• and, of course, (eventually) Rue Frontenac.

Reaction and analysis is coming in from:

• The FPJQ, which sees this as reinforcing its worries about media concentration in Quebec
• Le Devoir's Stéphane Baillargeon, who wonders if the managers who have been doing the work of journalists for the past two years won't see themselves out of their jobs soon
• Le Soleil, which looks at how this affects the Journal de Québec
• The right, which sees this as a victory against the unions
• Mauvais Oeil, which humorously looks at how readers of the Journal and the rest of the world see the conflict

And reaction from the journalists themselves:

• Martin Leclerc, on how the Journal - even before the lockout - is no longer what it once was
• Yves Chartrand takes out frustrations on the CSN
• Pascale Lévesque offers her CV
• André Rousseau doesn't mince words, calling it a total capitulation

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Note that this does not necessarily mean there's an agreement in principle. The release mentions nothing about whether the union executive recommends the proposal, whether the employer will accept the proposal, or any details about the proposal itself. (UPDATE: Apparently the CSN is saying the union is, in fact, recommending the proposal, which is pretty huge -- oh wait, the union is now denying it has recommended the deal.)

The vote will take place Saturday at 10am at the Palais des congrès, and followed by a press conference.

You'll recall that the last vote on a proposal, in October, resulted in 89.3% of workers rejecting the offer.

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An example to illustrate this is a company called Côté Tonic in Quebec City, which has been doing copy editing and page layout work for the Journal de Montréal during its lockout. Stories in Rue Frontenac and La Presse show that the small company did production work during the Journal de Québec lockout and had to fire people after that was resolved, but learned about an impending lockout at the Journal de Montréal before it was launched and even before the end of the labour contract for Journal de Montréal workers.

This information comes out now for a somewhat ironic reason: an employee who was laid off when she took maternity leave complained she was fired illegally. Her complaint was rejected because it was determined that the layoff happened after the Journal asked the company to reduce its workforce. But because labour relations board decisions are public, the dirty laundry comes out into the open.

The union representing locked-out workers claims there are all sorts of fly-by-night operations doing their work in secret, from customer service to page layout to accounting. But they've had difficulty gaining evidence about how they work, and under the current law there's nothing they can do about it anyway.

Also worth reading:

• La Presse's Martin Croteau looks at both sides of the argument about whether the anti-scab law needs to be updated
• Paul Journet has a recap of Tuesday's hearings, including Pierre Karl Péladeau's testimony
• Rue Frontenac's Yves Chartrand and La Presse's Journet on the Journal de Québec union's testimony, including their worry that Quebecor could be planning a second lockout there
• Rue Frontenac's Mathieu Boivin on union boss Raynald Leblanc's testimony
• Rue Frontenac's Charles Poulin on the demonstration the union made by producing this week's paper by remote.
• The FPJQ's presentation to the commission, which focuses on its desire for a separate inquiry into the concentration of media in Quebec (Radio-Canada has a summary)
• Chartrand on the second day of testimony, and statements that the commission will recommend changes to the law
• Steve Proulx on the need to update the law to make all strikebreakers illegal regardless of location
• Union president Raynald Leblanc interviewed by TV5 in France (where the concept of "lockout" doesn't exist because it's illegal)

There's also the Twitter feed of Rue Frontenac's David Patry, or the hashtag #commissionJdeM. The hearings can also be viewed online, in case you have a few hours to waste.

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Rue Frontenac's newsroom

Rue Frontenac started as an idea, in that it was copied from an idea realized elsewhere. When the Journal de Québec was locked out for a year and a half, its workers launched a competing free daily and later a website called MédiaMatinQuébec.

The publication was a pressure tactic (a judge even ruled as such when Quebecor sought an injunction preventing them from publishing). It would keep people updated on the status of negotiations from the union's perspective. But more importantly, it would remind readers that the real power of the newspaper came from its journalists, who would continue to do their jobs despite being in a labour conflict.

In essence, the journalists protested their lockout by continuing to work.

Whether MédiaMatinQuébec succeeded in its mission of forcing the employer's hand by turning public opinion against it is a matter of debate. But it raised the profile of the locked-out workers, and journalists facing a labour conflict since then have made this idea part of their plans.

On Jan. 24, 2009, about six months after the end of the Journal de Québec lockout and less than an hour after an agreement not to launch a labour conflict had expired, 253 members of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l'information du Journal de Montréal were officially locked out of their jobs.

The lockout wasn't a surprise - the writing had been on the wall for months. So a plan was already in place when the lockout became official (for both the employer and the union). Journalists would work out of the STIJM's offices, which are next door to the Journal de Montréal's office building at 4545 Frontenac St., at the end of Mont Royal Ave.

But rather than a free daily, they decided to go with a website. Unlike Quebec City, Montreal already had two free daily newspapers (one of which is owned by Quebecor), and its larger area makes it less practical to distribute a newspaper on a daily basis. Four days after the lockout began, RueFrontenac.com was launched.

(The title is somewhat ironic - though next door to the Journal's offices on Frontenac, the STIJM is actually on Iberville St., just north of where Frontenac merges into it.)

Its team of journalists, working out of drafty offices without most of the usual office comforts, continued to work their beats, trying to come up with exclusives that would raise the website's profile. It's now considered a primary source of news and a major news organization in Montreal.

Rue Frontenac's first issue in October

In October 2010, after a successful test the year before with a special Canadiens issue, Rue Frontenac launched as a weekly tabloid newspaper to accompany the website. Rather than try to stay up to date with breaking news (much of it would be days old), the paper focused on features and exclusive reports. It was more of a magazine on newsprint than a newspaper.

Richard Bousquet, who has been coordinating Rue Frontenac in both its formats, says he worked seven days a week from August to December on this project, until he finally took a vacation over the holidays.

When it launched, Rue Frontenac had 1,400 distribution points, most shared with the free weekly Voir. Now, Bousquet says, it's more like 1,600. And distribution points in Quebec City have been added to those in the Mauricie, Eastern Townships and Outaouais regions. The publication is also taking names of people who would be interested in paid delivery.

The print run is 75,000 copies, and Bousquet wants a return rate of under 5%. Right now it's about twice that, but dropping as they adjust the number of copies for each stand.

The plan is that, with the exception of labour costs paid out by the union's strike fund, the paper should be self-sufficient financially, meaning that advertising revenue (and maybe subscription revenue) should pay for printing and distribution costs.

Advertising comes slowly

"Ça roule," union president Raynald Leblanc said during a press conference two weeks ago when asked about advertising in the paper edition. The reality is a bit more complex.

The first issue of Rue Frontenac had quite a bit of advertising, but it was mostly from unions showing solidarity, not businesses trying to make money.

A notable exception was Micro Boutique, the Apple dealer, which had a half-page ad in the first edition. Bousquet says they wanted in right away to take advantage of the media coverage surrounding the paper's launch. They knew a lot of people would be interested in that first issue.

For other corporate advertisers, the biggest problem was essentially a bureaucratic one: big advertising campaigns are planned and budgeted months in advance. This means there isn't much money for last-minute ads. Many advertisers are also worried about the long-term future of this newspaper if the labour conflict is eventually solved.

And then, of course, there are those who are worried about offending Quebecor, though that's not so much an issue as you might think, Bousquet says. "C'est pas un journal de combat," he clarifies. It's not afraid to say bad things about the media empire, but that's not its primary purpose, either. Obviously, they're not getting ads from Archambault or Videotron, but most other advertisers aren't afraid of what Quebecor might think.

(On Rue Frontenac's website, whose advertising is served by BV! Media, now owned by Rogers, ads for Videotron have appeared in the past, not because Videotron specifically wanted to be on RueFrontenac.com, but because the ads were displayed throughout the advertising network.)

As we enter into that 3-6-month window, more ads are showing up in the paper. We're entering RRSP season, which means a lot of ads from Desjardins, Bousquet offered as an example.

A profitable paper?

"On fait tout pour que Rue Frontenac continue à vivre," Bousquet says. Knowing that there's no way the Journal de Montréal will hire back all 253 workers or even a majority of that, the union eventually wants to offer the Rue Frontenac name to a publication that would be run by some of the workers who will be left behind.

It certainly won't be all the workers not hired back at the Journal who will be able to continue with Rue Frontenac. Forced to pay salaries on top of other expenses, its budget wouldn't be able to support 200 workers, or even 100, Bousquet admits.

Still, he feels strongly optimistic about Rue Frontenac's future as a small publication filling a niche as a weekly newspaper focused on in-depth, exclusive stories, and a website with mostly original breaking news.

Asked whether he thinks having an actually profitable newspaper is feasible, he responds: "Oui, il y a possibilité. On croit que économiquement c'est possible."

There are no big plans for the short term (at least, none Bousquet was willing to share), but they do plan to study their audience and their options. They're still collecting names as they figure out whether they should implement a home delivery service, and they're studying the possibility of increasing from one to two editions a week of the newspaper.

After the lockout

When a contract offer was voted down by a huge majority in the fall, and the union complained about an anti-competition clause as one of its main reasons for rejecting the deal, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said the company would withdraw its demand that Rue Frontenac be shut down and that laid-off workers be barred from working for La Presse. (When the Journal de Québec conflict was settled, one of its demands was that MédiaMatinQuébec be shut down, which is why it is no longer online.)

There are still other issues on the table, the biggest one being the number of employees who would be allowed to return to work. Negotiations that have recently resumed are covered under a blackout that prevents both sides from commenting publicly, but I imagine that number is still a major issue.

La question qui tue

So if Rue Frontenac does continue beyond the lockout, perhaps with a handful of employees, what are its chances of success?

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Two years. 24 months. 730 days. 17,520 hours. 1.05 million minutes. 63 million seconds.

These are the figures in the Journal de Montréal lockout that are not in dispute. On Jan. 24, just after midnight, it celebrated - perhaps that's a bad choice of word - its second anniversary.

But the number that's drilled into everyone's head is 253. That's the number of employees that were officially locked out that day. The number is repeated over and over by the union, which refers to 253 families on the street, 253 people without jobs, 253 people working at Rue Frontenac. Some people only partially familiar with the conflict (the ones who use "lockout" and "strike" interchangeably") even refer to "253 journalists", unaware that the lockout also affects dozens of office staff.

Raynald Leblanc, the president of the Syndicat des travailleurs de l'information du Journal de Montréal, admits that 253 is a "symbolic" number. The list of lockoutés has 253 names on it, but many of those people - about 10% - are no longer contributing to the cause and no longer receive cheques from the strike fund. About 10, including columnist Bertrand Raymond, have decided to retire. Most of the others are still leaving open the option of coming back to work for the Journal, but are not receiving cheques either because they have found another job or because, Leblanc says, they are rich enough that they don't need the money. Only two have officially resigned.

The law, Leblanc says, is clear that even those who have taken jobs elsewhere to pay the bills can come back once the conflict is over. Of course, it will be their choice, and some who have since moved on will probably choose to stay in their new jobs, if there's even a job at the Journal to go back to.

Note: Numbers above might be off slightly, take them as estimates

Among the 230 people still "active" in the conflict, the level of that activity varies. There are some, like journalists Gabrielle Duchaine and Jean-François Codère, who are filing stories on a regular basis for Rue Frontenac, the website and newspaper setup as a pressure tactic and public relations campaign. There are some who contribute more occasionally to Rue Frontenac. And there are many, like the 31 people who work in classified ad sales, whose skills aren't really that transferrable. Many of those can be found on the picket lines outside the Journal de Montréal offices, or in newly created jobs like running the Rue Frontenac cafeteria. And there are some who have disappeared off the map completely for whatever reason.

For Pierre Karl Péladeau, the Quebecor CEO whose company owns the Journal, the 253 figure is fiction. He breaks the numbers down another way. For him, the number of permanent employees "active" in the conflict is only 179, discounting 45 contract employees and 29 people who have retired or otherwise quit their jobs. In the latest offer to the union, 52 of those people would continue to have jobs (among them only 17 journalists), and 127 jobs would be eliminated, but 31 of those employees are eligible for retirement.

Leblanc, at 57 years old, is one of those who could leave and start taking their pensions. But he asks rhetorically: "are we obliged to take retirement just because we're eligible?" The answer, of course, is no. Some people need more money and aren't financially stable enough to retire. And to Leblanc, forced retirement isn't much different from forced unemployment.

And so, as Year 3 of the Journal de Montréal lockout begins, and negotiations haven't given us any news recently, we wonder how long this conflict will last.

When it started in 2009, the union bragged that it had a two-year strike fund, enough to pay its employees about 70% of their salary (tax free) until 2011. Asked about that two weeks ago, Leblanc was categorical: "It won't run out."

I asked him where that guarantee comes from. He said it was from other unions. The CSN has made an example of this conflict and will keep putting money into it until it's over. They are determined not to lose this battle over money alone.

With both CSN and Quebecor having seemingly endless pits of reserve cash, the idea that one side could wait it out until the other had been brought to its knees financially has been exposed as a pipe dream.

A parliamentary committee will be holding hearings into this conflict next month. Which is good, because left to their own devices, it seems both sides are content to let this drag on forever.

Two years on: Media coverage

The various local media have noted the two-year anniversary with stories, among them:

• La Presse's Michèle Ouimet talks to some of the workers, including a long-time classified sales representative, about how their lives were like two years ago and what they're like now
• Le Devoir's Stéphane Baillargeon looks at this conflict in the context of "dématérialization" (a piece that was used in the Courrier International - with explanations edited in for its audience in France) at the state of the petition to boycott the Journal. Le Devoir also has a review of the Show du cadenas on Monday night.
• The Gazette's Jason Magder looks at the lockout from a business perspective, talking to analysts and experts about how it has affected Quebecor's bottom line
• Cécile Gladel points out the timing of Péladeau's announcement of tens of millions of dollars for a Quebec City arena, while arguing the Journal doesn't have money to pay its journalists.
• At Rue Masson, Gladel polls local businesses and politicians to see which ones are boycotting the Journal
• René Vézina at Les Affaires points blame in both directions - at CSN and Péladeau
• Gérald Fillion says there needs to be a larger debate about labour conflicts and labour laws in this province
• FPJQ president Brian Myles blames Quebecor's control over too much of Quebec's media and says the government needs to clamp down on media concentration in a press release
• Rabble.ca has its own far-left take on the conflict and Quebecor's evility (reposted at J-Source)
• Radio-Canada's René Hormier-Roy talks to journalist Gabrielle Duchaine briefly about the lockout and her attachment to the Journal

and simple to-the-point stories from CBC, CTV, TVA, Presse Canadienne, Agence France-Presse, Projet J and, of course, Rue Frontenac itself.

UPDATE (Feb. 1): A great story in Concordia's The Link about the human cost of the lockout, talking to people including caricaturist Marc Beaudet.

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The offer was the result of negotiations held under a blackout, and while neither side would confirm that one was on the table (they wouldn't even confirm that a meeting was being held to vote on it), some details had leaked out through the media, which notes that it is unchanged from the offer the employer tabled last month:

• The deal would have seen only 50 of 253 jobs kept, among them only 17 journalists (out of 65), five editors and four photographers. The employer would choose who could keep their jobs
• It would have required the shutting down of RueFrontenac.com, at least temporarily (UPDATE: No, it was permanent) and a promise not to launch any competing newspapers
• Those losing their jobs would be prohibited from working for La Presse or Cyberpresse for a period of time
• In exchange, the employer would offer unspecified severance pay to those losing their jobs

The vote is unsurprising, if only because 80% of those voting would have lost their jobs (and been prevented from seeking equivalent jobs elsewhere), and even though some of those might have been close to retirement and decided that some money was better than none, a strong feeling of solidarity in the union was more than enough to overcome those who were tired of the conflict and wanted a quick end at any cost.

Even though the lockout is in its 21st month, the Rue Frontenac operation is still in high gear, and is in fact gearing up. The union plans to launch a weekly paper version of Rue Frontenac this month. Meanwhile, there are hints of a parliamentary commission to negotiate an end to the conflict.

The union was quick to issue a release announcing the offer's rejection (the blackout having been lifted). It includes this quote from union head Raynald Leblanc: "C'est une insulte envers nous, mais aussi envers tous les lecteurs du Journal de Montréal. Comment peut-on prétendre faire un journal de qualité avec aussi peu de personnel?"

Selon lui, le plan de Quebecor est simple. Moins d'information, plus de profits. En fait, la nouvelle salle de rédaction du Journal de Montréal n'aurait plus de journalistes à l'économie, ni aucun chroniqueur salarié. Tout proviendrait de l'extérieur, via l'Agence QMI, qui bafoue sans vergogne le principe d'étanchéité des salles de nouvelles.

Pire, l'entreprise a indiqué vouloir garder ses 25 cadres à la rédaction, ceux-ci se retrouveraient donc à superviser 32 employés. « Il est clair que l'arrogance de Quebecor est liée à l'interprétation restrictive faite par les tribunaux des dispositions anti-briseurs de grève. S'il y avait un tel ratio de cadres dans le système de santé, Le Journal de Montréal, Le Journal de Québec, TVA et LCN en feraient leurs manchettes et dénonceraient cette situation absurde », affirme Raynald Leblanc.

Quebecor also issued a release saying it was "profoundly disappointed" in the offer's rejection. It gave its side of events in the next day's Journal, downplaying the number of job cuts by playing around with numbers of part-time staff, those on disability or those near retirement.

Rue Frontenac, which stayed away from the story until after the meeting (becoming the only news outlet not to report on the story at first) simply pointed to other news outlets' reports on the subject (for "objectivity's" sake) and then published this rather non-objective piece on the subject.

LCN, to their credit, covered the vote fairly.

UPDATE: More commentary from:

• Plateau mayor Luc Ferrandez on what the Journal has become (a piece that itself was covered in news stories by La Presse, Radio-Canada, Le Devoir and Rue Frontenac, and even an editorial cartoon by Beaudet)
• René Vézina on why the media isn't talking much about the conflict
• Pierre Duhamel on the Journal's exaggerated scandals
• Yves Boisvert on how unreasonable Quebecor's demands were
• Patrick Lagacé (on Mario Dumont's show) on Quebecor's non-competition demand
• Patrick Lagacé, Anne Lagacé Dowson, Martin Petit and Franco Nuovo on Christiane Charette, about public support for the locked-out workers
• Nathalie Collard in her usual detached analysis
• Le Club des Ex on the non-competition part of the offer
• Rue Frontenac's cartoonist Beaudet takes on the non-competition clause and a joke at Banquier's expense
• Le Soleil's cartoonist André-Philippe Côté also takes a swipe at Quebecor
• Michel David on the government's refusal to update Quebec's scab law
• La Presse's Michel Girard on how the Caisse de dépôt is as much to blame for what's going on with Quebecor Media
• Le Soleil's Gilbert Lavoie on the need to update Quebec's anti-scab law

Trente also interviews Leblanc on his feelings about the offer.

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Which begs the question: Why did they approve the contract? Just to get the severance?

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Quebecor put a final offer on the table on Thursday, adding that if the workers refused, the paper would be shut down at the end of the month. (Coverage from Radio-Canada, Rue Frontenac, Projet J.) The final offer would result in the layoff of 20 of the paper's 25 unionized employees, leaving only three journalists and two office workers. The rest would get severance of two weeks' salary for every year of service, up to a maximum 42 weeks (14 of the 20 will max out, the rest will receive less).

The union voted 68% in favour of the offer.

UPDATE: After-the-fact coverage from Journal de Québec, Argent, Le Quotidien

A similar deal was reached last week at Le Plein Jour in Baie-Comeau.

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A week before the anniversary of the Journal de Montréal lockout, I went to Rue Frontenac's offices and sat down with tech journalist Jean-François Codère, and asked him a few questions that had been nagging me.

You'll have to excuse the background noise, because Gabrielle Duchaine couldn't shut her bloody pie-hole and stop flirting with me I haven't gotten around to getting an external microphone for my cheap new video camera.

Some highlights from the interview, for those too lazy to sit through a half hour of a talking head (or who can't understand French):

• Codère learned about the idea for Rue Frontenac in December 2008, at which point he undertook the mission to setup "something like Cyberpresse" in a month, in time for the expected Jan. 2 start of the lockout. (Last-minute negotiations pushed into the new year, delaying the lockout until Jan. 24.) The site is based on Joomla, only because they're familiar with it and the union's website is based on the same platform.
• Though the few people organizing the website knew well in advance, and some journalists had an idea of it the week before the lockout, most of the 253 union members didn't know about Rue Frontenac until the day of the lockout.
• The three-week delay between the end of the collective agreement and the start of the lockout helped to build up the site, but training everyone on how to use it still took a while, and was the main reason for a four-day delay between the lockout's start and the launch of Rue Frontenac. (Codère points out Patrick Lagacé's complaint last year that they weren't acting fast enough - he says he asked Lagacé about it when he visited Rue Frontenac at Christmas, and Lagacé admitted that nobody remembers or cares anymore)
• Salaries are paid out of the union's strike fund, but Rue Frontenac's other expenses are expected to be self-funded, mainly by advertising and donations.
• Rue Frontenac works with assignment editors, but most people just cover their own beats. The number of articles journalists might file in a week varies depending on the type of story and other considerations.
• Non-journalists, like classified and business office workers, tend to do more picketing because there's not much they can contribute to Rue Frontenac.
• Most people Codère talks to are at least aware of what Rue Frontenac is, so he doesn't have trouble getting interviews. (Codère's experience may be atypical - he's their tech reporter, so the people he deals with are more connected and more exposed to the website.) Most reporters also already have good relationships with their contacts.
• Getting access to events like concerts isn't that difficult, even though they're the only purely web media accredited at the Bell Centre. They've negotiated photographer access to 15 of 42 Habs home games, and hope to get a better deal next year (assuming they're still locked out).
• Rue Frontenac uses the Reuters photo service to get images for international stories. But all the text is generated from Rue Frontenac journalists.
• Working at Rue Frontenac is "fun" compared to the Journal, but Codère is a realist: It's not profitable to do journalism the way they're doing it.
• Some computers come from MédiaMatinQuébec, others are personal laptops used by journalists (many of whom had to get old ones or buy new ones because their work laptops were confiscated after the lockout was called).
• They enjoy not having to do stories about the weather, Boxing Day and other ridiculousness.
• Codère has received job offers since the lockout, but so far he's turned them down to remain a journalist.
• Yes, Rue Frontenac asked for documents to submit a bid to do news for V (ex-TQS), but that was more to learn from the documents. Considering the CSN is still fighting for former TQS journalists whose jobs are being replaced by this subcontracting of news, actually submitting a bid would put the union in an awkward position to say the least.
• What happens to Rue Frontenac after the lockout ends will depend on negotiations, but MédiaMatinQuébec's website was taken down as a condition of the Journal de Québec workers going back. What kind of impact that would have depends on how long it will be, and how much work will have gone into Rue Frontenac. Codère's ideal would be for the Journal to buy Rue Frontenac and all its content, but he isn't holding his breath.
• Despite the success of Rue Frontenac, Codère doesn't think it's feasible in the short term to have an online-only news organization without a corresponding newspaper. Newspapers come to you, he points out, whereas you have to go to websites. He thinks it will be at least a few years until a serious online newsroom can be financially sustainable.

And one thing that wasn't in the interview: Rue Frontenac subscribes to digital television. But for some reason they prefer Bell satellite TV to Videotron cable.

UPDATE (Jan. 28):

Jean-François Codère talks about Rue Frontenac on CFCF's News at Noon

Seems CTV also got the idea that Codère was a good person to talk to about this anniversary.

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The one-year anniversary is only days away (today is Day 363)

The Syndicat des travailleurs de l'information du Journal de Montréal held a press conference yesterday to advance the upcoming one-year anniversary of their lockout. I was working so I couldn't make it, but there's plenty of coverage in The Gazette, Presse Canadienne, Radio-Canada, Le Devoir, Metro (which has video of the press conference), and - to be fair - Quebecor-owned Argent does an acceptable job of getting both sides.

The STIJM also announced that they're holding a party on Sunday - the one-year anniversary - at La Tulipe. Performers include Richard Desjardins, Tricot Machine, Louise Forestier et El Motor, Loco Locass and Jean-Sébastien Lavoie. Tickets are $20 and available only at the box office (assuming they're not already sold out).

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The Journal de Montréal management, in response to the union's call for new negotiations to end the almost year-long lockout, laid out the "reality" of the situation and reiterated the demands made before the lockout began. Both the union and the employer accuse the other of backtracking on deals made during negotiations last year.

After receiving letters yesterday of management's presentation to the union negotiating committee on Friday (the text of which is reproduced below), Journal workers went to the Mirabel printing plant where the Journal is printed and picketed outside, delaying delivery of the paper (and, as "collateral damage", Le Devoir as well, as it's now printed there). Press release and stories from Rue Frontenac, Journal de Québec, CBC, Radio-Canada and Presse Canadienne.

The Journal condemned the "illegal" manifestation in a statement.

UPDATE (Dec. 16): La Presse has more on the situation in a day-after story.

The following appears through the magic of optical character recognition, so there may be some minor errors:

NOTES DE LA PRÉSENTATION FAITE AU COMITÉ DE NÉGO DU STIJM
PAR LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL LE Il DÉCEMBRE 2009

CONTEXTE

Le comité de négociation syndical nous a récemment transmis un document décrit comme «un nouveau cadre de discussion et position syndicale concernant le renouvellement de la convention collective ».

Malheureusement, ce cadre de discussion constituait un recul par rapport aux principes déjà acceptés et que l'on retrouvait à l'entente de principe signée par le comité de négociation syndical le 29 décembre 2008.

Nous avons rencontré vendredi le 11 décembre 2009 le comité de négociation syndical pour lui faire part de nos commentaires et observations, le tout en présence du conciliateur. À l'issue de cette rencontre le syndicat nous a demandé de fournir un document résumant nos commentaires.

Vous trouverez donc ici le résumé des commentaires transmis à votre comité de négociation.

On doit se rappeler que nous nous retrouvons maintenant à la fin de l'année 2009 qui a mis en lumière une diminution significative des revenus au Journal de Montréal comme dans l'ensemble des autres médias écrits. À cet égard, le conflit en cours n'a pas joué de rôle dans la perte de revenus au Journal, la diminution des revenus étant similaire à celle que l'on retrouve chez les autres journaux de Sun Media et chez nos compétiteurs.

Tous savent également que ces revenus en baisse n'ont pas été déplacés sur les autres plateformes, numériques ou autres. Les revenus ont connu plus particulièrement une baisse très marquée aux petites annonces et en publicité, dans le secteur de l'emploi et de l'automobile qui constituaient traditionnellement nos secteurs forts.

PROBLÈME DE PERCEPTION DE LA RÉALITÉ:

L'enjeu auquel nous faisons face découle d'une révolution en profondeur de l'industrie dont les effets seront permanents. Il ne s'agit pas d'un phénomène cyclique ou temporaire.

Dans ce contexte où la solution aux difficultés présentes passe par un remodelage de notre modèle d'affaires, on ne peut s'attendre que notre convention collective actuelle ne fasse pas elle-même l'objet d'une revue en profondeur.

Par conséquent, la convention collective doit changer radicalement elle aussi et à cet égard, les règlements récents chez nos compétiteurs ne peuvent constituer une référence compte tenu de nos réalités différentes.

Dans ce contexte, il n'est plus pertinent de parler de 230 demandes, 350 ou de 370, chiffres vide de sens et que nous pourrions moduler à l'infini. Cependant, la sévérité de la crise de l'industrie nous impose de revoir en profondeur la convention collective au niveau de ses principes. Prétendre le contraire nous démontrerait qu'il est impossible de nous entendre sur la nature même du travail à faire lors de cette négociation.

VOTRE DÉPÔT:

Votre cadre de négociation constitue un recul ou un empêchement à mettre en place le nouveau modèle d'affaires nécessaire et n'est donc pas une solution pour relancer les négociations :

À titre d'exemple:

1) les abolitions d'emplois, où l'on continue à exiger qu'elles soient exclusivement volontaires, sans recours à la sous-traitance ou à la fermeture de départements;

2) le multiplateformes, où l'on constate une volonté de renégocier des principes acceptés par tous il y a plusieurs mois:

3) les heures de travail, où l'on refuse encore la notion déjà acceptée des 37.5 heures travaillées;

4) la récupération monétaire, où l'on refuse toujours de reconnaître son caractère nécessaire.

SITUATION ACTUELLE:

Où en sommes-nous après plusieurs mois en conflit de travail ?

1) Nos demandes étant tributaires des conditions fixées par un marché en mutation constante et rapide, les pertes d'emploi seront plus élevées que celles annoncées en janvier 2009 (la situation s'est dégradée de façon telle que nos demandes ont dû évoluer notamment en fonction des nouvelles façons de faire et de la technologie). La rédaction ne sera pas non plus épargnée par des pertes d'emploi;

2) On ne peut désormais maintenir la semaine de quatre jours pour certains salariés, la semaine de cinq jours devant s'appliquer à tous;

3) L'industrie étant en constante mutation, il est aujourd'hui impossible de déterminer le niveau du plancher d' emploi,

4) Nous avons exposé la situation financière du Journal de Montréal au comité de négociation syndical. L'année 2009 a révélé des pertes de revenus marquées au Journal comme chez nos compétiteurs. Ce constat est d'ailleurs confirmé par les données financières divulguées par Sun Media pour le troisième trimestre de l'année en cours. Une reprise économique ne changera pas la situation financière des médias écrits.

Sun Media a déjà posé des gestes concrets pour faire face à la crise en coupant des postes, en restructurant, en centralisant, créant ainsi des économies de plus de 45 millions de dollars. Le Journal de Montréal n'y échappera pas.

PROCHAINE ÉTAPE

La négociation doit se faire sur la base du nouveau plan d'affaires. Mais pour cela, il faut reconnaître les prémisses suivantes:

On ne pourra éviter les :
1) Fermeture de départements;
2) Réduction majeure des effectifs plus grande que prévue en janvier et non seulement par attrition ou volontariat;
3) Impartition ou sous-traitance des tâches non reliées directement au contenu;
4) Réduction des coûts en ayant comme objectif que vous demeuriez parmi les mieux payés de l'industrie;
5) Récupération de nos droits de gérance et de flexibilité pour assurer la pérennité de l'entreprise et notre capacité de réagir en temps opportun;
6) Capacité de mettre à pied pendant la durée de la convention si le volume de travail baisse dans un secteur, aux petites annonces plus particulièrement;
7) Utiliser les forces du réseau QMI. Ce réseau n'est pas une tare mais une richesse, il s'agit d'un modèle que nos compétiteurs copient, envient, qui existe et qui réussit partout dans le monde. Nous devrons trouver une façon de tous y trouver notre compte.

La direction du Journal est consciente des conséquences du remodelage du modèle d'affaires sur les employés et est prête à faire face à ses responsabilités, notamment en consentant des indemnités de départ appropriées et généreuses et en aide à la relocalisation.

Il est faux de prétendre que nous ne voulons pas négocier mais il est vrai de prétendre que nous voulons assurer la pérennité de l'entreprise.

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The Syndicat Canadien de la fonction public publique (Canadian Union of Public Employees) has put together a 23-minute video (in French and with English subtitles) about the 15-month lockout of editorial employees (and subsequent strike by press workers) at the Journal de Québec in 2007 and 2008.

As you can imagine, being a union-produced video, it's hardly detached from the situation and presents a somewhat distorted view. There are no interviews with Quebecor or Journal management (who knows if the SCFP even tried). Talk of the deal that was eventually reached talks of it being a huge victory for the workers, while in reality it was more of a reasonable compromise between the two sides' demands.

Even though the labour disruption ended in the summer of 2008, the saga is far from over. The union is appealing a court decision that nullified a labour board ruling that the Journal used scabs as subcontractors during the lockout. There's also a fight over Quebecor Media wanting to add additional Journal de Québec journalists to the National Assembly to make up for the Journal de Montréal journalists currently being locked out.

Looking back at the conflict also serves as a comparison with the current situation at the Journal de Montréal (and Le Réveil, whose 26 locked-out workers want to go back to the table). The chasm between workers and employer in Montreal is even larger than it was in Quebec, although many of the issues are the same.

But the union, and the documentary, are right about one big thing: The MédiaMatinQuébec experiment changed the face of labour disruptions involving journalists, and is serving as a template. The template couldn't be entirely replicated by the STIJM in Montreal (Montreal already has two free newspapers - one owned by Quebecor - and the territory is larger than Quebec City), but the Rue Frontenac website might not have happened were it not for MMQ.

Unfortunately for the union members, Quebecor also learned from the Journal de Québec lockout. It learned how to get around anti-scab laws, and made sure its Agence QMI was setup so it could take news from other sources and reproduce them in the Journal de Montréal.

If the Journal de Montréal workers end up with a deal similar to what the Journal de Québec workers got, that will probably also be hailed as a huge victory for the union. But who knows how long it will be until that happens. Both Quebecor and the STIJM are prepared for the long haul.

Le Trente also has some discussion about the SCFP's video.

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File photo of a train for illustration win!

At midnight Friday night, CN locomotive engineers went on strike, following their 72-hour notice that sent everyone in a panic because two AMT train lines (Deux-Montagnes and Mont-Saint-Hilaire) are run by those engineers and would have been disrupted or even shut down if there was a strike.

Fortunately, late Friday night the union agreed (or was forced to through an AMT injunction) to keep service on the AMT trains running as normal through the strike.

As you can expect from the AMT's deficient customer service, there's no mention of this late-night, last-minute change - or even of the strike itself - on their website's homepage, despite all the media attention it has been getting. Even under "avis aux voyageurs", there's no mention of the potentially crippling strike, and users get the very unhelpful "aucune information disponible" for the status of all five train lines. You have to know to go to the AMT's corporate website to find a press release saying service won't be affected.

Contrast that with VIA Rail, which has its own engineers and so wasn't going to be affected in the first place. Nevertheless, there's a section of its homepage for travel advisories, and it says very clearly that service won't be affected by the CN strike. (VIA has some experience with this, going through a strike of its own this summer.)

At GO Transit in Toronto, it's not as clear if there will be disruptions (and there's nothing on the homepage), but the status page (updated regularly even on weekend afternoons) makes it clear the service is still running normally.

As for CN itself, the homepage makes it look like nothing's wrong at first, but under "news releases" there's mention of the strike, and the "state of the railroad" page has a few details about what's going on.

I realize nobody likes to work weekends, and those who do can't change the elaborate web page design that the boss's nephew was paid lots of money to put together, but when engineers go on strike, we don't care about your new train cars or how you're fighting for the environment. We want to know what's going on.

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This effectively means that La Presse won't be shut down on Dec. 1 as it had threatened to do.

The distribution workers will vote on their deal Monday, so we won't know the details until then.

But we know what's in the editorial contract (or at least most of it). I'm waiting for a copy of the full contract, but here's what's being reported (Radio-Canada, CP, Gazette, Trente, Rue Frontenac):

• The work week changes from 32 hours over four days to 35 hours over five days, at the same salary. Those who want to keep the four-day work week can become part-time employees (28 hours a week).
• Salaries remain frozen for 2010 and 2011, but will go up by 2% for each of the last two years. The maximum salary goes to $90,000 in 2012 and $95,000 in 2013. Those who work 40 hours a week have their salaries frozen until 2017.
• Employees will now pay 100% of dental insurance premiums, and 60% of medial premiums
• As of Jan. 3, pensions will no longer be adjusted to the cost of living
• Less vacation: they get 5 weeks at 14 years of service instead of nine, 6 weeks at 22 years instead of 20, and the 7-week vacation plateau has been eliminated. But employees get six more mobile vacation days a year.
• Employees of La Presse and Cyberpresse are merged under the same unit and will be treated equally.

As a result of the deal, La Presse foresees no layoffs of permanent editorial employees, but expects five to take voluntary departures.

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The deal still needs to be approved by the members, and we don't know which side caved on the various demands, but the union seems to think this is the best offer they could get.

In case you forgot, La Presse is shutting down on Dec. 1.

While many have dismissed this over-the-top threat (they'd also shut down cyberpresse.ca) as an insane bluff, Gesca has reinforced it, reportedly arranging for BlackBerrys to be returned next week. Managers and employees are clearing out their desks, and the atmosphere in the newsroom is very tense.

The union, which was in negotiations today and will meet with members on Saturday, released this video in which Richard Labbé and Isabelle Masse sing (!) about what people would lose if La Presse gets shut down:

Mind you, I think Patrick Lagacé could find employment elsewhere, and there are lots of options for crosswords.

UPDATE: Rue Frontenac watched the video.

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Normally that part is pretty boring, but this year, for the first time in longer than anyone can remember, the presidency of the association is being contested by more than one candidate.

On one side if Martin Bisaillon, a locked-out journalist with RueFrontenac.com, who would become the first FPJQ president locked out from his job as a journalist. He's running on an unofficial slate that includes Brian Myles of Le Devoir, Isabelle Richer of Radio-Canada, André Noël of La Presse and Michel Corbeil of Le Soleil.

On the other side is François Cardinal, a columnist at La Presse. He's not running with a team, but his candidacy was encouraged by current president François Bourque, who isn't running again.

Though technically nominations are open until Saturday at 1 p.m., these are the only two expected candidates, and their platforms have been posted on the FPJQ's website.

One issue

Bisaillon admits that his candidacy stems from a decision made by Bourque to criticize a proposed boycott by members of the National Assembly against journalists for the locked-out Journal de Montréal. Bourque said it would set a bad precedent for MNAs to dictate which journalists they would talk to and which they wouldn't, and that such a boycott would go against the principles of freedom of the press that the FPJQ defends.

Bisaillon, who as a member of the locked-out Journal de Montréal staff has a clear vested interest in this debate, was harshly critical of that statement, which he interpreted as the FPJQ taking a stand against the union:

La Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec a suscité beaucoup de mécontentement ces derniers mois parmi ses membres, notamment en raison de la prise de position du président sortant sur le conflit de travail au Journal de Montréal. En janvier dernier, François Bourque s’était insurgé contre les députés qui disaient ne plus vouloir donner d’entrevue au Journal de Montréal en raison du lock-out décrété par Quebecor le 24 janvier.

Par cette prise de position, M. Bourque a rompu avec la tradition de neutralité de la FPJQ. Pis encore, son intervention a fait en sorte que les partis politiques à Québec se sont sentis libres de collaborer avec le Journal de Montréal en lock-out, alimentant ainsi un média privé de ses artisans. M. Bourque aurait du s’en tenir au principe de neutralité de la FPJQ dans ce dossier.

Les journalistes qui se présentent avec moi entendent maintenir cette neutralité comme valeur absolue. En revanche, nous ne pouvons pas ignorer la réalité qui nous heurte. Cette réalité est sombre : salles de presse atrophiées, lock-out ou menaces de lock-out, multiplication des blogueurs et autres «journalistes citoyens», banalisation de l’information au point d’en faire un objet de consommation.

Cardinal, while he doesn't name Bisaillon in his platform directly, makes it clear that he doesn't want the FPJQ getting involved in these issues and potentially alienating managers and media owners:

Imaginons maintenant une FPJQ plus radicale, une FPJQ qui se jette dans la mêlée, bref une FPJQ détournée de ses valeurs fondatrices. Aurait-elle la crédibilité nécessaire pour asseoir à une même table des groupes de presse aux intérêts divergents? Évidemment pas.

Certes, il y a du mécontentement au sein de la Fédération, avec raison. Appelée à réagir à chaud sur des dossiers extrêmement complexes et délicats, la FPJQ marche constamment sur des œufs, et en casse parfois. Ayant un large membership, elle déplaît à l’occasion à certains de ses membres, qui hélas s’y retrouvent moins.

What does neutral mean?

Both candidates say they want the FPJQ to be neutral in labour conflicts, but their interpretations of neutrality clearly differ. Bisaillon, a militant union man, thinks the association should sit quietly when the interests of unions and the interests of journalists are at odds (he does, however, think they should speak out against convergence, outsourcing and other issues that affect unions negatively). Cardinal apparently believes the association should ignore whether unions are at issue and focus on journalism and journalists first. (UPDATE: Cardinal clarifies his position via Twitter: "FPJQ doit s'impliquer lorsque la liberté de presse est menacée et que les journalistes ne peuvent plus travailler dans des conditions adéquates")

The debate here is whether the FPJQ should support the interests of journalism or the interests of its members (most of whom are unionized). The answer isn't obvious.

One insider emailed me this week to express concern about Bisaillon's candidacy, worrying that union members would vote en masse for him and the association would be an extension of the unions, especially powerful ones like the Syndicat des travailleurs de l'information du Journal de Montréal.

On the federal level, the FPJQ's best equivalent is the Canadian Association of Journalists, which frequently takes public stands on issues affecting media. In some cases, such as condemning job cuts at CTV and CBC, those could be seen as pro-union, but other issues it has stayed silent on, including the lockout at the Journal de Montréal.

There's an instinctual force sometimes among unionized journalists (such as myself) to think that every union issue is also an issue of freedom of the press, that any dispute between employer and employee is a dispute between the good journalist trying to do a professional job and an evil media empire bent on cutting corners in order to make a quick buck.

Whether journalists actually agree with that stance, well, we'll find out on Sunday.

See also: Cent Papiers also discusses this issue.

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The news caught the other unions (affiliated with the CSN) off guard, and they shot off a communiqué accusing La Presse of negotiating in bad faith.

The CSN unions are the more important ones, because they represent editorial and distribution. Without their okay, nothing really changes.

La Presse is about two-thirds of the way to a deadline it has set for its employees to accept wage concessions. It has threatened to shut down the paper on Dec. 1 if its demands are not met.

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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.

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