TORONTO, June 27,
2024 /CNW/ - Unifor is deeply concerned and outraged
that Bell Media has once again announced restructuring plans, this
time, giving notice to close to 50 Unifor media workers.
"This is a corporation that has made billions of profits at the
end of last year and they continue to carry on with their
profit-over-people principle," said Unifor National President
Lana Payne.
"This is yet another blow to journalism and democracy and a step
towards bigger swaths of news deserts across Canada."
Unifor was informed that 49 unionized positions may be impacted
in Locals 79-M and 723-M, driven by what the company calls, the
"Willow" plan to relocate its downtown Toronto news stations CP24, BNN and NewsTalk
1010, to Agincourt, Ont.
The company plans on consolidating these stations with its
existing CTV Toronto, CTV News Channel and CTV National News.
The Bell Media cuts specifically impact production workers,
including ENG editors and supervisors, media services coordinators,
media services technicians, graphics artists, post sound, AV
technicians, and engineering technicians, among others.
In June, 2023 Bell cut 1,300 media jobs and in
February of this year terminated 4,800 workers, including 100 in
media as noon news broadcasts on all CTV stations, except
Toronto, and weekend newscasts on
all CTV and CTV2 stations, except in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa were cancelled.
Earlier this year Unifor launched its 'Shame on
Bell' campaign to call out the BCE Board for decimating Bell's
media division while continuing to hike shareholder payouts.
The Bell cuts are the second major hit to local news this
month.
On June 12, 35 Unifor members at
Global News were laid off as part of restructuring by Corus
Entertainment Inc. There were 13 layoffs in Calgary, seven in Toronto, eight in Edmonton, three in Lethbridge, three in Ottawa, and one in B.C.
The 35 Global TV cuts were on top of 11 Unifor members at the
company who were already laid off in 2024.
Unifor represents more than 10,000 media workers, including
5,000 members in the broadcast and film industries.
Unifor is Canada's largest
union in the private sector, representing 320,000 workers in every
major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working
people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in
Canada and abroad, and strives to
create progressive change for a better future.
SOURCE Unifor