Free Press Workers Accept Company Offer

Strike lasted 16 days - paper began publishing again on October 30.

On Tuesday, October 28, the more than 1,000 employees of the Winnipeg Free Press who has been on strike since October 13 voted to accept a company offer that had been given to the union on October 26. The workers returned to their jobs on October 29 - with the paper publishing its first post-strike edition on Thursday, October 30

The contract that the workers accepted includes wage increases of two per cent in each of the next five years. In addition to the two per cent wage increase Free Press carriers will also have their minimum reimbursement for each kilometre they travel increase immediately and a new formula will be used to raise the reimbursement as fuel prices increase.

During the strike, the Free Press workers received lots of support from the labour movement. On October 22, the workers were joined on the picket line by several hundred members of numerous other unions including the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, the Canadian Office and Professional Employees' union and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Staff from the Winnipeg Sun and the CBC also came to show their support at the rally, as did former St. James city councillor Jae Eadie.

The employees of the Winnipeg Free Press and Canstar Community News who were on strike included newspaper carriers, staff in editorial, advertising, circulation, technical maintenance and the mailroom and pressroom. In addition to the Free Press daily, the strike also halted production and distribution of community newspapers like The Herald, The Lance, The Metro, The Times, The Headliner, Uptown and Prime Times.