The labour stoppage on Mountain Street has played out before the eyes of the public, thanks to the new technologies -- to the chagrin of some of the combatants.
The Free Press website has never seen so many stories posted, with some usually deskbound senior editors pressed into service demonstrating undiminished skill in crafting up to a half a dozen stories in a day.
Meanwhile, the strikers established their own news website and is competing with management to churn out online content and keep readers informed.
Public opinion of a newspaper strike -- and of the 2 sides -- is not as easily manipulated as in the old days, both because of the role of independant bloggers, and due to the strikers' miscalculation when establishing their website.
Blogger David Watson took shots at both sides.
"Striking WFP reporters are now reduced to blogging. They now get the same salary as the Black Rod and Policy Frog does – zilch. In a sense the WFP reporters have arrived at the ultimate destination of all major newspapers prematurely. Their newspaper is now totally virtual. No dead trees need apply...
Which friends of Bob Silver in government and industry will he call upon first for support? Will Gary Doer be in solidarity with the workers or with his chief business advisor? Will Sam Katz tell us his story of his rags to riches yet once again as he sides with the head of Destination Winnipeg? Will U of M professors support the strikers in the classroom or the head of their economic engine, SmartPark?"
Repeated strikers' stories about the falling unit value of FP Newspapers Income Fund - since the strike started it has dropped to all-time lows -- provoked blog readers to suggest that it was "misplaced union propaganda" and counter-productive, despite the protests of one reporter that "We love the paper, we love the brand and we love our jobs."
"...publicly humiliating your employer will not make anything easier now or later... These kind of actions will cause a lot of animosity between employers and employees once operations are running again. I think for a bunch of journalist’s this is pretty pathetic."
Not only was the public voicing their opinion on blogs, so were bloggers -- on the strikers site.
PolicyFrog
October 14th, 2008 at 12:36 am #
Love the idea of this website guys, but I have to say that this piece comes off a bit more like a pro-union editorial than a legit article. Nearly every other publicly traded newspaper group in Canada and the U.S. is also at or near a 52-week low, if not an all-time low. The driving factors here are the economy in general, and more specifically, the increasingly outdated business model of the printed newspaper. Making it appear like the drop in FP.UN is largely due to labour issues seems a bit sketchy to me.
Union members also wrote in the comment section of the share price story on the newssite, dissatisfied with their representatives.
free press walker posted:
"This strike leaves me wondering too. Full time and some part time production workers make in excess of $70,000 some making close to $90,000... Too many times have strikers found out to their dismay that union leadership like management is calling the shots."
When reporter Bartley Kives doubted that the poster was really an FP employee, another commenter retorted:
"This is a forum created by the union for an exchange.
If Bart does not want to hear anything against his own stance then go back to the old newsletter of the last strike and he can say anything he likes without reproach. Kind of like having a column with a byline and without any opportunity to hear an alternative view (No, letters to the Editor do not cut it).
I have no objection to the right to strike in case you may be wondering but don’t think for one minute you will get away with hearing only your point of view in a blog such as this. If it was created to spout one point of view, take away the comments section."
In a further attempt to quell dissent, as listeners of the show heard Friday, an open letter to the strikers from a negotiating team member hectored doubters and armchair quarterbacks, for not appreciating what an ordeal it was to represent them.
"An Open Letter to My Fellow Strikers
... Hard copies of the ‘final’ offer will be distributed at the strike headquarters.
The bargaining council cannot accept this package – it attacks everyone, and I would never vote for it...
But I have to say that the web page has had its problems, like everything else in this strike. That’s to be expected. What’s not to be expected are the people who whine and complain when everything doesn’t go perfectly for them. This may sound naïve, but if you see a problem, ask someone if you can help find the solution. The people on the various committees are doing the best they can. And, when I asked for volunteers to help out, few people stepped forward -- now those individuals know why because of the abuse and grief they’ve been getting.
Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving.Thanksgiving? Well, it wasn’t a good Thanksgiving at my house. I spent 9-10 hours each day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in an office at the Labour Department. There was no Thanksgiving weekend for my family or the families of the other bargaining council members. And I have to say that my patience for whiners and complainers is at an end. If you’re offended by this, I don’t care because iIt’s become all too clear that there are a handful of individuals who are only thinking about themselves, ignoring the contributions and efforts of all the others trying to make this a successful strike.
I don’t care So if you’re not happy with your picket shift, when you picket or who you’re picketing with then you’re just going to have to suck it up and move along like the rest of us. And I don’t care if you’re not happy with decisions of the strike committee or the communications committee. No one is out to screw you personally, or anyone else. Decisions are made with the best of intentions. If there is an issue, discuss it with those individuals responsible. Solutions will be found. These committee volunteers are not management – they are your sisters and brothers who are dedicating their time to help all of us...
I will be on the picket line Thursday, Friday and Saturday to answer any questions you might have and to hear your suggestions on where we go from here."
Union members were not unanimously buying into the rah-rah speech, and started raising even more questions in comments threads about their situation. Reporter Bruce Owen waded into the fray online, urging members "Don’t listen to rumours on the picket line. It does no one any good and plays into company’s hands."
At the same time, public outrage began to swell over a strikers story posted Friday afternoon describing how Free Press employees accepted handouts from Winnipeg Harvest like a bunch of mooches, after only 4 days walking the picket line. This came a mere week after CBC Radio held an emergency pledge drive to restock Harvest's shelves to feed the poor.
The next thing we knew, on Friday at 3.02 PM Kives announced on behalf of "the freepressonstrike.com team" that henceforth, comments on their news website were going to be moderated i.e.- the filter went up.
Which only goes to show, freedom of the press to report and comment on the public, does not extend to freedom of the public and union members to the same consideration, when it comes to the Free Press strike committee.
