Chronicle Herald employees in Halifax strike

The HalifaxChronicle Herald's newsroom union members have walked off the job in Halifax, starting a strike at Canada's oldest independentlyowned newspaper.

The union and management were in positionfor a strike or lockout as of midnight Friday.

At least 20 newsroom staffwere gathered outside the Herald building on Joseph Howe Drive ahead of the midnight deadline, saidFrancis Campbell, vice-president of theHalifax Typographical Union.

"We're all in this together,"Campbell said.

"We're looking for a fair deal and we're not going anywhere until we get one."

The union includes 61 reporters, editors, photographers, columnists and support staff.

Union executives spoke with company representatives throughout the day via text messages andemails, Campbell said. He said the union offered to not strike and continue negotiations into the weekend if management agreed not to impose its contract.

The newspaper has been stuck in a series of broken down talks. Mostrecently, management said it would impose a contract on newsroom staffif the union did not agree to wage cuts, layoffs and changes to the pension plan and contract language.

Herald responds

Last-minute talks did indeed happen, Herald management confirmed.

"These were always going to be difficult negotiations," vice-president of administration Nancy Cook said in a statement releasedearly Saturday morning.

"I doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that media companies are struggling. Just look at the layoffs at Postmedia this week or the Toronto Star last week."

Cook did not respond to an interview request.

Talks broke offin December several times and this week's last-ditch efforts stalled.

Last year the company locked out theemployees who printed the paper. The newsroom has had two rounds of layoffs, one in the fall of 2014 and the other in 2009.

• The Chronicle Herald faces major change with or without a work stoppage
• Chronicle Herald employees prepare for a work stoppage
• 'We don't want to strike them,' union negotiator says
• Freelancerscontacted ahead of possible work stoppage

Wednesday management rejected a last-minute offer from the union, which including reducing wages by five per cent and cutting vacation time.

Paper to keep publishing

The Chronicle Herald has prepared to continue publishing.The paper has an agreement with Brunswick News, a newspaper outlet in New Brunswick, to publish articles without bylines if they pertain to Nova Scotia,the union said Thursday.

Editors also approachedfreelancersto bank stories for a work stoppage and to contribute during it.

Many reporters, editors and photojournalists employed by the Herald changed their profile photos to the union's logo in preparation for a workstoppage. Several removed reference to the Herald from their Twitter profiles.

"A proud member of @HTU_official," reads the profile of Stephen Forest. "Long live the newspaper."

"Soon-to-be-laid-off digital news editor @chronicleherald," reads that ofPam Sword. "All job offers considered. DM me."

Mark Lever, president and CEO of the Herald, said in a letter last week there would be changes, including layoffs in photography, editorial and pagedesign departments.

Lever did not respond to CBC's interview requests Friday.

The CBC's Canadian Media Guild belongs to the same parent union, CWA Canada.