Friday, July 17, 2009

Canadian Freelance Union to hold inaugural meeting October 3

The quiescent Canadian Freelance Union is apparently rumbling to life. In a bulletin to members, interim president Michael OReilly says that the inaugural meeting of members will be held October 3, with a number of physical sites and electronic links for other places. A draft set of bylaws have been put together by members of the interim executive and interested CFU members and will soon be available via the CFU's online web forum for a full discussion and editing.

OReilly says that the new union has a 3-year commitment of funding and support from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

He also announced that long-suffering charter members, some of whom signed up to show their interest as long as three years ago (the CFU was first announced in August 2005), will receive a discount on the first year of dues. Normal dues will be $125; charter members will pay $100 for the first year.

Among the member benefits detailed in the memo are:
  • A contract advice service to help members interpret and understand what they are signing.
  • A formal contract support to help members deal with disputes over payment, rights usage or other problems.
  • A "Red Flag" service to warn members about unscrupulous engagers.
  • A basic benefits plan (details to follow).
  • Access to full benefits packages at rates far lower than would normally be possible (leveraging linkages to the CEP)
  • A hiring hall which will link members to work, and work to members.
  • Use of the CFU bug (following our inaugural meeting).
  • The start of efforts to negotiate better freelance contracts from some of the country's largest publishers such as Quebecor, Transcontinental, Canwest, Rogers, etc.
  • A web forum (which at the time of writing had not posted the member bulletin
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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

watch that crowd use freelancers as cannon fodder in any fight for full time employees
Better stay with PWAC and Finkle

10:19 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The notice was actually posted on the forum about an hour before your blog post.

If you're not a CFU member and aren't registered for the forum, you do not have access to any of the forum contents.

9:54 am  
Blogger D. B. Scott said...

Thanks; the post has been corrected.

11:00 am  

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