By: E&P Staff Thanks to a tentative agreement reached by The Toronto Star and the union representing its editorial staff, Canada's biggest newspaper could reduce the number of newsroom employees it expected to lose.
The newspaper had announced plans in November to eliminate 70 full-time editing positions and eight part-timers as part of outsourcing page-production work to a subsidiary of The Canadian Press. The move was estimated to save the company about $4 million a year.
The Star reported Tuesday that the agreement, reached on Monday, would save as many as 35 positions in the Star's newsroom. Page production would be done by newsroom employees. Union members will vote Thursday on the deal.
The Star boasts an editorial department of about 380.
"Regretfully, this alternative to contracting out will still result in a number of layoffs in the newsroom, with details on specific numbers to be communicated as soon as possible,? Publisher John Cruickshank said in a statement to his staff.
The Star also reported the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild had proposed a plan to prevent layoffs in the paper's prepress department. The company and union could not come to terms on that proposal, Union head Maureen Dawson told the newspaper.
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