14 December 2009

The Montreal Newspaper Guild takes issue with and dissociates itself from a self-serving editorial in The Gazette Dec. 10 that called for the granting of accreditation to two Journal de Québec reporters to the National Assembly press gallery in Quebec City.

The Guild, which represents editorial, advertising, circulation, business office, information technology, and classified employees at The Gazette, strongly supports the Quebec Press gallery executive, which rejected the accreditation request.

The gallery clearly views the move by Quebecor Inc., which publishes the Journal de Québec, as designed to enable these reporters to act as replacement workers for the Journal de Montréal reporters who have been locked out by the same employer, along with 253 unionized workers, for almost a year.

The gallery executive foresaw the obvious: Quebecor is seeking to subvert Quebec's anti-scab law, which makes it illegal for an employer to use replacement workers during a strike or lockout. By allowing the Journal de Québec to get the accreditations it seeks, the gallery would be aiding and abetting a clear attempt to circumvent a law that has been on the books for some 30 years.

The Gazette editorial is self-serving because, in making common cause with Quebecor management, it ignores the right of unionized workers not to be replaced during a strike or lock out.