Our First Six Months

Here are our goals for the first six months of 2026

Hold Steward Training Sessions

Hold a minimum of two steward training sessions for members in most regions to build power and unity across all regions, branches and location units, with emphasis on freelancers, technical workers and other under-represented members

Organize Workshops

Offer at least two general organizing workshops to all members, at least one of which will be in-person

Institute a Debrief

Hold a member-led webinar debrief within three months of a contract being won.

Start an Actionable Newsletter

Start a member-led, regular union newsletter to communicate with members

Begin Hiring

At the 2025 CMG convention we pushed to pass a motion to explore hiring a new full-time staff member organizer. The goal is to have an organizer who can identify and organize new workplaces in Canada. We will continue to make this a priority

Build Networks

Start building a network of rank-and-file organizers to activate members to do internal organizing at their shops

Develop Framework

Develop a member-mobilization framework that is triggered a year and a half in advance of bargaining

Fight for Under-Represented Members

Create strategies to support under-represented members like freelancers, technical workers and temp workers

Advocate for Reform

Create a plan to advocate for reforming federal policies like the Local Journalism Initiative to better serve communities and offer more job security

Here Are Our Policy Positions

Gleaned from a democratic and collaborative process.

Union Training Sessions

Minimum one in-person steward training sessions per region: We will provide at least one in-person steward training opportunities in all regions: Pacific, Atlantic, Northern, Western, Ontario and Quebec. Member organizers will run the steward training, adapted from The News Guild format or existing methods, but with a focus on broader organizing, not just large branch steward duties. These will be supplemented with virtual training and we will endeavour to hold in-person training in less populous regions whenever possible. This is a floor, not a ceiling. CWA aims to have one steward per 10 members and we will work towards that goal, emphasizing training stewards in under-represented groups like technical workers and freelancers. We will also develop training segments that specifically address the challenges facing under-represented and marginalized workers.

Teaching Organizing Principles

We will provide at least two training sessions on how to organize within the workplace, one virtual, one in-person. This training is for anyone in any workplace, not just stewards. In it, members will learn to identify key workplace issues, organize rank-and-file members to tackle the issue, and have conversations that move people to action and win improvements in the workplace. These skills will help members at all branches, no matter how big or small and will create a new generation of union activists. We will also identify members in our workplaces who are not covered under our Collective Agreements and offer them the training so we can work together to raise the bar for all workers.

Mobilization Framework

We will develop a plan to train and mobilize members to prepare for collective bargaining by drawing on successful public sector worker movements like the Chicago Teachers’ Union’s activist CORE. Once developed, our union will automatically trigger the mobilization framework 1.5 years out from bargaining to get rank-and-file members engaged and ready to fight for a fair contract. This will include offering training on organizing fundamentals to create new activists and leaders, sharing grassroots knowledge by bringing in guest speakers to share lessons from other contract campaigns, hosting solidarity-building events to bring members together and developing strategies to shore up support in the community. As part of this process, we will identify workers who are not covered under our collective agreements and endeavour to bring them in, understand their issues and address them at the bargaining table. Activating members far in advance of bargaining puts us in a stronger position to push for higher wages, progress on temporary workers rights, job security and more. The framework will lay this out in detail based on best practices of other unions. With a mobilized rank-and-file, we can get members better deals at the bargaining table and use different bargaining styles and tactics like open bargaining, “master agreements,” and pattern bargaining.

Working Towards Hiring a Full-Time Staff Organizer

Hiring one full-time staff organizer will create massive opportunities for growth. The organizer will create a plan to organize new workplaces and grow our membership after decades of CMG losing members to layoffs and cutbacks. If a union isn’t growing, it’s dying. The organizer can draw on our activated network of members to help organize other workplaces, run trainings and more. CBC workers bear a huge burden, and growing CMG’s membership will bring in dues from other workplaces and help diversify our membership.

Creating a Country-Wide Member Organizer Network

We will grow the member organizer program using The News Guild’s “learn, do, teach” method to share skills to mobilize an ever-growing number of members. We will create an army of engaged members who take organizing, steward, bargaining, contract campaign and strike training, practice those skills and then host those training sessions for new members across the country. These organizers will troubleshoot workplace issues together to improve conditions on the ground. The News Guild used this method to mobilize members and win historic contracts, including at the New York Times Tech Guild. We will give members a reason to care about union work!

Holding Regular Contract Debriefs

Bring together members to learn how to run a successful contract campaign that builds power and exerts it smartly and effectively on the employer and share lessons learned and victories from past contract campaigns. At this virtual debrief, all CMG members will hear directly from a panel of grassroots members that were on the ground taking action, bargaining and living through the contract campaign. Members can ask the presenters questions. This will help educate members on the bargaining process and what it takes to win and fight for each other. Knowledge is power and we will make this knowledge accessible for all members. The virtual meeting will be accompanied by a written post-mortem of the campaign, to be completed three months after the contract is signed, and made available to all CMG members so there is a historical record. CMG leadership, staff and grassroots members will collaborate to ensure the briefing reflects lived experience on the ground.

Mobilize technical and non-editorial workers

We will support members that are often overlooked or underrepresented, particularly technical workers who have fewer stewards and less visibility of the unique challenges they face in the workplace. These supports will include targeted steward training to ensure technical workers have stewards who fully understand their challenges. We will provide funding to support the creation and activities of a caucus for non-editorial workers to better enable them to advocate for policies. It takes time to build up our steward network, so in the interim, we will connect existing stewards with non-editorial members to collaborate on how to better serve under-represented workers.

Empower and Assist Temporary Workers

We will establish a CMG task force on temp workforce issues and conversions to ensure nobody falls through the cracks. The temp task force will create an onboarding process that can be distributed across all CMG workplaces so workers know their rights, and who can help them, as soon as they walk through the door. The task force and leadership will create a union-wide reporting structure to report abuses towards temps; this will assist with supporting members in the short-term and aggregate important data to find long-term solutions to the persistent abuses. The task force will explore the possibility of harmonizing collective agreement language for temps so it is easier for them to move from workplace to workplace and raise the bar across all companies. We will duplicate and expand CBC’s existing webpage about temp rights and resources (temps.cbc.ca) to include information for all CMG shops.

Bargain for Freelance Protections Across the CMG

Freelancers at all workplaces deserve protection and support, but are under-resourced. We will proactively reach out to freelancers to ask them to sign a union card, connect them with a steward and other freelancers and equip them with resources outlining their rights. We will actively recruit freelance members to attend steward and organizer training so freelancers can turn to stewards that fully understand the unique challenges they face. We will distribute training and materials on freelancer issues to give existing stewards and staff the tools to best assist freelancers. We will develop a communication system to keep track of freelancers and notify them of relevant trainings and events and foster a community. We will also leverage this system to ensure that newsrooms of all sizes can identify, and respond, to freelancer concerns, all with the aim to get freelancer language into all collective agreements.

Support Francophones and Other Linguistic Communities in Our Membership

CMG Workers United will work to encourage and train union activists who work and live in French, Inuktitut, ASL/LSQ and the other languages. By offering training and mentorship across the country, we will prioritize offering development to non-English speakers to organically grow capacity at all levels of our union.

Start a Regular, Member-led Union Newsletter

We will engage members with newsletter writing skills and organizing acumen to produce a newsletter to share training opportunities and events, disclose leadership activities, highlight the great work members and staff are doing, instruct on how to support members during contract campaigns and share wins and information on active union fights.

Advocate for Tax Credit and Policy Reform

We will consult the rank-and-file on how to make policies work better for members and the communities we serve. For example, some newsrooms fired Local Journalism Initiative reporters when a funding gap occurred. When the federal government is making decisions about policies that affect our work, the boss is there, pushing their agenda. So we need to be there, too, and we need members’ input on how to do it. We believe that when news organizations receive funding or tax credits, it must always be tied to jobs and security for workers.

Prioritize Accessibility and Transparency

Canadian media has an accessibility problem and we need to change that. To do this, we will explore ways to provide information in alternative formats, speed up the current process to publish union information in French, and prioritize accessibility policies and procedures for digital and in-person events. In the spirit of “Nothing About Us Without Us” a common refrain in disability communities worldwide, we will make all accessibility policies available to members within six months and create a pathway for members — regardless of the type of access need being addressed — to bring these concerns forward in a timely manner.

Our Policies & Platform

We Will build Member Power