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CDLC Responds to Conrad Black
March 18, 2000
Dear Mr. Black:
On behalf of the 28,000 members of the Calgary and District Labour Council, I am writing to respond to your letter of January 17. 2000 to Jim Sinclair and comments made during your March 2, 2000 visit to Calgary. I am amazed at the misinformation that was contained in your letter. If your advisor were more accurate with the information they provide to you the management dispute at the Calgary Herald would have ended before now, possibly would never had occurred, and would not have had,the detrimental and negative impact on our community and its citizens. Perhaps it is, however, your disregard for our community, our city, Canada and its citizens that drives you to continue.to try to destroy (the) social fabric of our community and to censor the news reported by our major city newspaper.
Who would have given you the information that the average reporter earns $64,000 annually? Are your own people misleading you to continue this management dispute? Salaries at the Calgary Herald range from. approximately $27,000 to $61,000 for those working as reporters or editors,
And what is all this nonsense in your letter about subsidized daycare. Do you mean the $1 per day to your workers, or are you referring to the tax dollars of the Alberta people who contribute to the Provincial Government subsidies the Herald receives for its day care? These inflammatory and erroneous statements are designed to continue a dispute that, could be settled if those representing you here in Calgary were not so intent on creating and continuing an environment of antagonism for no other reason than to control our press. What are you afraid of, that someone will write something with which you are not totally in agreement? Imagine a broad range of opinion appearing right here in Calgary in one of your papers.
Take the initiative to tell your misguided employees, Peter Menzies, David Laird and Dan Gaynor to go back to the table and leave the rhetoric behind. Did you know that Peter Menzies gave testimony that he could hear strikers and protestors spit from his location on the top of the Calgary Herald building over a hundred feet away? How ridiculous, and these are the people representing you. They are the reason there is no resolution. What you characterize as a left wing/NDP coup d'etat is actually the tyranny and oppression by your representatives. I would challenge you to name a single, worker who is currently on strike who is a member of the Alberta New Democrats and /or Federal NDP. YOU have the power to settle this strike with honour for yourself and with respect for Calgary Herald workers. Be courageous and confident enough to do it.
Gordon Christie
Executive Secretary/Organizer
Calgary District Labour Council