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In exchange for these concessions, the union said it asked for an increase in severance: specifically, for laid off employees to get two weeks pay in addition to their existing entitlement to one week for every five months served at the company. “We owed it to our fellow employees who might be losing their jobs,” said the union memo.

However, according to the July letter, Now management refused the requests for enhanced severance.

And, when the company and Unifor’s bargaining committee met with a provincial conciliation officer from the Ministry of Labour on July 19, the union said management asked for severance be capped at 26 weeks (under the previous CBA, it was capped at 52 weeks).

According to the union letter, Now management has also proposed multi-year pay freezes, reductions in commission for sales staff, and to contract out the publication’s circulation department.

“Imagine negotiating for several months and [at the beginning of conciliation] the company opens by saying it wants to contract out an entire department,” said Monday’s union memo. “This is what’s known as backward bargaining and it’s been happening for the past three months. Just when the Union thinks it is reaching a deal, the employer adds more demands.”

In its memo, the union also accused Now management of failing to bargain in good faith, which it said could violate the Labour Relations Act.

In an e-mailed statement, Klein told the Financial Post that “the union leadership’s version of management presented in the quoted version of the union’s memos to our staff are inaccurate on all counts…We are not going to respond in the press as we will continue to focus all our efforts on finding a resolution to this impasse that works for the company, the union and our staff.”