Employees at online news site Canoe.com have ratified their 1st contract: Unifor

TORONTO – Unifor says Canoe.com employees have ratified what’s believed to be Canada’s first union contract for a standalone online news site.

Employees at Canoe, part of Postmedia’s Sun Media division, certified a union a year ago and a tentative deal was reached on Monday.

Unifor says the employees voted in favour of the first contract by a wide margin on Thursday.

The deal gives the 15 employees protection from unjustified dismissal, a grievance process, scheduling rules, benefit and pension rights, job protection language and a wage grid to be implemented on May 25, 2017.

Next year, employees will get their first raise in several years.

Unifor Local 87-M represents about 2,500 media workers across southern Ontario, including the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun and 13 other Postmedia newspapers.