Canadian Press employees vote 83 per cent in favour of new collective agreement

Unionized employees at The Canadian Press have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a new three-year collective agreement.

The Canadian Media Guild said Monday 83 per cent of members who voted supported the deal — the first since the national news agency shifted from a co-operative to a for-profit corporation.

The deal includes salary increases over the second and third years of the agreement, with four increases of one per cent each at six-month intervals. Employees will, however, have to take on some of the cost of benefits, estimated at between $100 and $140 a month per worker.

In all, 163 of some 240 eligible employees voted on the contract, which was unanimously endorsed by the union bargaining team. The employees included editorial, technical and administrative staff.

CP has faced a substantial deficit in its pension plan, but the federal government gave it a longer-than-normal period to repay that deficit. Under the deal ratified Monday, employees gave up the interest on amounts owed to them as part of an earlier restructuring plan in lieu of pension benefits for 2009-11.