MONTREAL - Management at Montreal's most widely read newspaper locked out its editorial and office employees Saturday in a dispute over salary, benefits and media convergence.
About 250 employees at Le Journal de Montreal have been without a contract since Dec. 31.
Publisher Lyne Robitaille said in the newspaper Saturday that the current collective agreement prevents the paper from modernizing its business model, adding that the popularity of the Internet, free newspapers and 24-hour cable channels has severely reduced the daily tabloid's revenue.
But union president Raynald Leblanc said layoffs, a longer workweek and a reduction in benefits are only part of the locked-out employees' concerns.
"We're not in agreement over the convergence within Quebecor," he said in an interview.
"We don't want to find ourselves at Le Journal de Montreal online with all the other Quebecor products, both to protect the profession and to protect our jobs as well."
Quebecor Media (TSX: QBR), which owns Le Journal, is one of Canada's largest media companies and holds interests in publishing, Internet and cable broadcasting and telecommunications with companies like the Sun Media Corp. (TSX: QBR.A ), the TVA Group (TSX:TVA.B) -- Quebec's largest French-language television network -- and the Canoe web portal.
The newspaper says it wnats to increase profitability by merging online and multimedia content throughout its network of publications.
Isabelle Dessureault, vice-president of public affairs for Quebecor Media, says the move to a multi-platform publication makes sense in the era of new media.
"The world is really about sharing content, information, and links," she said.
"Le Journal de Montreal is part of an organization with 300 publications. We think that there are definite benefits for the readers to get this information. We never said we wanted to diminish the quality of our publication."
The newspaper plans to invest in more local content and run more investigative and exclusive reports, she added.
But Leblanc charges that the details of the agreement aren't clear.
"What they say they want to do is bring into both the print and the web edition things taken from TVA, articles from (free daily) 24 Heures or (weekly magazine) 7 Jours," Leblanc said.
"Ultimately, we could find ourselves with CD reviews from the Archambault (music store) website or stories about celebrities who star in Quebecor-produced content. Quebecor has tentacles everywhere. I'm not saying it will happen, but that it could happen. They want to use the branding of Le Journal to sell other things."
The province's association of professional journalists has also expressed misgivings about the proposed changes.
In a statements on its website, it exhorts that solutions to the industry's financial concerns shouldn't compromise the fundamental principles of journalism.
"This opens the doors to the publication of poorer quality articles that have not been produced under strict journalistic standards," the organization stated.
Meanwhile, both sides of the picket line accused the other of inflexibility.
"They want the whole pie," Leblanc said, noting the union is willing to make concessions on the length of the workweek and overtime.
Photographers and journalists at the paper make an average salary of $88,000 for a 30-hour week. Editors make an annual average salary of $125,000. Employees are entitled to four to six weeks of annual vacation paid at time-and-a-half.
Dessureault said the dispute is really about working conditions. Management is looking to cut jobs in the classified and accounting departments and has offered "generous departure packages," she said.
"The newspaper industry is facing its biggest crisis ever. If we don't have enough business, we can't keep people."
Employees began picketing outside the paper's east-end offices Saturday and the locked-out workers have launched their own website.
Management at the paper will continue to publish during the lockout.
A 15-month lockout at another Quebecor-owned publication, Le Journal de Quebec, ended last year. Le Journal de Montreal, first published on June 15, 1964, was launched during a strike at another Montreal daily.
