Rogers Continues Cuts with OMNI & City TV Layoffs

Courtesy: Rogers Sports & Media

Rogers Sports and Media continue to slash jobs, as they have terminated 47 union positions at OMNI and City TV. This is part of a labour reduction trend from Canada’s biggest media corporations, and the result will be less local news, while employees are asked to do more with less resources.

19 Unifor members at OMNI agreed to voluntary severance packages, while 25 others will be laid off and 3 positions will be eliminated by attrition. The layoffs come with an effective termination date of August 14th. The positions impacted include camera operators, editors, media operations staff, producers, reporters and directors. A spokesperson for Rogers said there will not be programming changes because of these moves.

It has been a brutal summer for the media sector in Canada. Rogers cut 230 media jobs along with 6 radio stations in early July.  That was followed by Corus laying off 43 Unifor members as part of Global News’ consolidation – a move they callously described as “strengthening local journalism.” This latest round of cuts will bring the total number of jobs lost to at least 320, in less than 30 days.

The reduction of local news coverage is an issue that’s compounded by the federal government’s gutting the Online Streaming Act. This vital legislation was set to bring in roughly $2 billion for our Canadian news ecosystem, until the CRTC was reportedly ordered to eliminate all contributions from foreign streaming giants.

MAP is resolved to push back against this reduction of local news by organizing, bargaining and lobbying the media sector. We call on all levels of government to actively support news organizations and create an ecosystem which fosters growth in media companies.