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On the eve of a contract vote which could lead to a strike or a lockout at the Globe and Mail newspaper, unionized reporters appear to be preparing to launch a competing publication to add leverage to their standoff with management.

Leaders of the Globe’s workers’ union, Unifor Local 87-M, have recommended the rejection of management’s latest contract offer, which is scheduled to go to a vote on Wednesday afternoon.

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As the collective agreement approached expiration this past Monday at midnight, Globe reporters and columnists withdrew their bylines from stories from the Monday edition and the website that day, exercising another standard technique of unionized newsrooms to pressure management.

The National Post is not unionized.

Almost two weeks earlier, employees of the Globe — majority owned by the Thomson family’s Woodbridge Co. Ltd., with a minority stake held by Bell Canada (BCE) — voted 97% in favour of giving the union a mandate to strike if it hadn’t reached an agreement once the contract expired. The deadline for a vote on the latest offer was eventually moved until Wednesday.