Council concerned about further job cuts at Sault Star

Sault Ste. Marie City Council is asking Sun Media to re-think a plan to cut more jobs at the Sault Star.

The following is the full text of a resolution passed by councillors on Monday night, followed by a statement from the Communications Workers of America union.

************************* Mover: Councillor Lou Turco Seconder: Councillor Susan Myers

Whereas Sun Media has plans which will cut more jobs at the Sault Star and at other newspapers in Northeastern Ontario; and

Whereas the Sault Star is an important player for local community communications; and

Whereas these cuts could have the effect of centralizing more operations in the City of Sudbury;

Therefore be it resolved that City Council request that Sun Media reconsider these job cuts and the potential centralizing of part of its operations in Sudbury.

************************* Sault City Council supports media Sault Ste. Marie City Council voted in favor of local media Monday night.

They passed a resolution to fire off a letter to Sun Media, asking the media giant to reconsider job costs and centralizing part of its operations in Sudbury.

Employees at the Sault Star, North Bay Nugget, Timmins Daily Press and the Sudbury Star recently learned that its parent company Sun Media will be centralizing its pagination jobs in Sudbury by the end of June.

Pagination is a process where stories, photos and headlines are organized on a page via computer publishing program prior to going to press.

Each newspaper had been doing the function on its own.

The centralization means 2.5 job losses in Sault Ste. Marie and three in North Bay.

In Timmins, the process began earlier this year and job losses have already occurred.

Sudbury will gain three entry-level positions.

Ward 2 Councillor Terry Sheehan said this isn’t the first time jobs have been lost to a centralizing system and told City Council that it has to fight to keep its local media, an important player in community communications.

It’s not the first layoffs in the newspaper industry.

The Sault Star lost its creative department and three graphic artists about a year ago and prior to that it lost an employee in the newsroom and several in the business office.

North Bay will lose six creative employees at month end.

The Sault Star, North Bay Nugget and Sudbury Star all lost jobs in 2008 when cuts were made throughout the chain. *************************