Sunday 2 March 2008

A strike record

As records go, the 252 Journal de Quebec employees who have been locked out and on strike for 10 months didn't celebrate the one set today.

Today's milestone for the CUPE employees - their dispute with Sun Media/Quebecor became the longest in Canadian French-language newspaper history.

Their dispute began April 22, 2007, with a lockout of editorial and office employees followed by an immediate sympathy strike by pressroom workers.

Until today, the record French-language newspaper labour dispute was experienced by Le Soleil in Quebec City in 1977, which, ironically, helped Journal de Quebec flourish.

And as the Journal's dispute nears its first anniversary, there has been little movement on management's side to hasten an end to the lockout/strike.

The 252 Journal employees continue to publish the free, weekday strike paper MediaMatin, with a daily circulation of 40,000.

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