New Transcon freelance contract even more demanding

TC Media has ramped up the agreement they impose on their freelance contributors and are apparently now insisting on not only full copyright but also a waiver of moral rights. 

According to a report on Story Board, the new contract terms not only specifies a full transfer of copyright but that is also that it relates to the more than 30 Transcon titles, not just the assigning one. And the moral rights waiver would give Transcon the right to change an article, with or without the writer's byline.

"[T]he problem with this agreement is that it covers everything you ever do for them. So once you sign it for one thing, it applies to everything else," says Derek Finkle of the Canadian Writers Group, an agency for writers. "For something that’s more personal, or something that has some unique reportage in it, or something that could potentially be spun out into a book or another article or a television show or a documentary, it starts to get really problematic because you’ve now given up your copyright, it seems to me, not just to the words but even to the idea,” he says.

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Ontario Arts Council employees form a union

Employees of the Ontario Arts Council have formed a union. A new bargaining unit has been established as part of  The Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO) following a vote supervised by the Ontario Labour Relations Board held on February 6. The new union covers granting, communications, research, outreach, administrative and finance staff employed at the OAC's Bloor Street headquarters in Toronto as well as two representatives in Sudbury and Thunder Bay. This includes staff in the literature office, which most often interacts with literary and cultural magazines. 

The union was established in 1992 and represents employees both inside the Ontario public service and outside of it: such agencies as the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth; Waypoint Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene; Public Health Ontario; the Ontario Racing Commission; and Health Quality Ontario.

"We are honoured that the OAC staff chose AMAPCEO," said Association President and CEO Gary Gannage in a release. "The OAC and its employees do important work in promoting the arts and providing funding to the arts community in Ontario. A collective agreement will go a long way to ensure that they are able to focus on those responsibilities and continue to serve their stakeholders without having to worry about job security, working conditions and compensation." 

U.S. freelancers file $105 million class action lawsuit against Huffington Post over unpaid blogging

The freelance writer and union organizer who took on the New York Times -- and won -- in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case is now leading the charge against the Huffington Post. Jonathan Tasini, whose name is forever attached to the case Tasini et al vs New York Times*, is heading up a $105 million class action lawsuit against HuffPo, Ariana Huffington herself and AOL, which recently bought the company. A story by Jeff Bercovici was published on his Forbes.com blog.

The NYT case was very similar to the Robertson case in Canada, in which freelancers sued a whole range of media companies for damages for reselling their articles without negotiating secondary rights or compensation. The case being made against HuffPo is that it was built upon the work of unpaid bloggers and then sold to AOL for $315 million. 

At the same time, The Newspaper Guild, representing 26,000 U.S. media workers, has asked unpaid bloggers to erect an "electronic picket line" by refusing to continue to supply free content.

"We feel it is unethical to expect trained and qualified professionals to contribute quality content for nothing. Working for free does not benefit workers and undermines qualify journalism."

 Tasini, a former president of the National Writers Union, was apparently a six-year contributor to the Huffington Post until he stopped posting on February 10, three days after the AOL sale; his past blog posts can be found there. (Although for how much longer is anyone's guess.) According to Forbes, Tasini has vowed to make Huffington

"Anyone blogging for the Huffington Post now is a scab," Tasini was quoted  by Bercovici. "They're a strike breaker. They're producing content for somebody who is attacking workers.

*Ironically, the Tasini case was something of a Pyrrhic victory; following the decision, the Times announced that it would expunge thousands of articles from its database unless writers gave explicit permission to leave them there -- without compensation -- and many did.

No contract, no Tweeting or Facebooking, union says to the AP

In what gives a new and modern twist to the concept of "work to rule", the union News Media Guild is recommending that its members working for The Associated Press refuse to do social media postings of their work for the wire service. According to a story on MediaPost, the members are being asked to silence their Facebook and Twitter feeds on Monday and Tuesday in an attempt to pressure The AP management to move ahead with coming to a contract.

In that sense, this new strike tactic illustrates how social media can empower rank-and-file content-producers. While they are still producing content (which still belongs to the AP), the ability of individual reporters to build up their own online followings gives them a measure of control over the total audience size.

Forgoing social media distribution can also serve to bring their labor dispute to the attention of supporters, who might then exert pressure on the AP.

The social-media stoppage also has the advantage of putting pressure on management without breaking any rules or requiring an actual strike, which can do more harm than good. Union president Tony Winton told CNN: "We're trying to basically communicate through social media the unity of our group in trying to negotiate a fair contract with AP."

Harper's magazine unionized staff try online fundraising to head off layoffs

The recently founded union at Harper's magazine (see previous post) has put out a broad fundraising appeal with the apparent intention of holding publisher Rick MacArthur's feet to the fire. The union notes that the magazine lost five editors last year and, with parlous finances cited, is being asked to lose two more now, including Ben Metcalfe, who was pivotal in the union drive.

We have shown numerous means by which Harper’s Magazine might cut costs and increase revenue without laying off its most skilled and experienced editors, and in particular we have urged the magazine's foundation to raise funds from outside sources. This possibility has been rejected by the labor lawyers representing John R. “Rick” MacArthur, our publisher. They argue that fund-raising takes time, and that there is no time to be wasted in reducing our editorial staff by two union members.

We wish to counter this argument by showing Rick MacArthur how much money can be raised in just a few days via the extraordinarily useful medium of the Internet. Please pledge what you can and pass this on, with the assurance that all funds promised here will be offered, in friendship, to the Harper’s Magazine Foundation. If the pledges we garner are refused by the foundation, your generosity will cost you absolutely nothing; if accepted, they will help to sustain America’s oldest, and finest, monthly.