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carriers who took part in a strike against the Toronto Star to protest the daily’s plans to contract out home delivery have now set their sights on bringing down the union president who led them into battle.About 50 carriers who participated in the job action this spring have signed a petition formally complaining about Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild (SONG) president John Deverell’s handling of the job action. They want him removed from office.
The petition, which has been officially received as a complaint by SONG, alleges, among other things, that SONG refused to push the envelope with the Star — even though striking carriers had offers of help from both community groups and other unions to boycott the Star and withhold advertising from the paper. “The local gave up on us, we did not give up,” the petition says.
Deverell calls the complaint “misguided, slanderous, frivolous and vexatious.” He says SONG was reluctant to call for an all-out boycott of the Star during the strike because the only people it would have hurt were Star employees, also SONG members, whose dues were covering carriers’ strike pay.
