Journal de Montreal: Locked out and taking a strike vote

So, they seem to be locked out and the union’s taken a strike vote, but if the company lifts the lockout they’ll go back to work. Think I’ll stop following this one till someone starts making sense.

CP/Canoe, Jan. 26 2009

Or maybe it’s not a lockout after all

It’s not a good day for Canadian Press. Yesterday they reported Quebecor had locked out staff of Le Journal de Montreal. Today, they note that most of the union rejected management’s latest proposal (this type of vote happens before, not after, a lockout). The story notes the usual management-union differences, including that the union doesn’t want to go on strike, but doesn’t mention the word lockout. The headline though, states the union faces a “possible lockout”, which strikes me as CP trying desperately to save face after misreporting this story yesterday.

CP, January 26 2009

Quebecor locks out Le Journal de Montreal

After a 15 month lockout at Le Journal de Quebec, Quebecor is back at it again, this time in Montreal. The issue: multitasking across different media, particularly the internet. Quebecor continues to try to find a way to make convergence work, even though convergence hasn’t worked since it was first conceived ten years ago. This will be interesting to watch; Le Journal itself was launched in the 1960’s after another media labor dispute.

Canadian Press, Jan. 24 2009