Unifor says 35 of its members at Global News have been laid off as part of changes announced Wednesday by Corus Entertainment.
Randy Kitt, Unifor’s media director, said there were 13 job cuts in Calgary, one in British Columbia, three in Lethbridge, eight in Edmonton, three in Ottawa and seven in Toronto.
He noted that this is in addition to the 11 Unifor members at Global who have already been laid off in 2024.
On Wednesday, Global News spokeswoman Anna Arnone said the changes were being made as part of an ongoing evaluation of its operations and a review of efficiency within Corus.
She declined to provide further details, including whether any employees had been laid off, although she said some positions had been affected.
Mr. Kitt called the news a devastating blow to the industry, adding that the jobs were “desperately needed” in Canada.
“The total number of Unifor journalists and media workers laid off this year already, across all groups, stands at 197,” he said.
Corus announced last week that it had been informed by Warner Bros. Discovery that some of its programming agreements would not be renewed at the end of the year. On Monday, Rogers Communications announced it had signed multi-year deals with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. for their popular lifestyle and entertainment brands in Canada, starting January 2025.
In April, Corus Chief Executive Doug Murphy said the company was continuing to cut costs following job cuts and a programming reduction plan launched last year.
Last month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted Corus’ request to relax some of its Canadian content spending requirements after the company warned it was in an increasingly disastrous financial situation.
The broadcaster had asked the regulator to “urgently” make the changes last October, saying they would provide “much-needed flexibility” amid uncertainty over programming and advertising, as well as “severely” financial limited”.