In North America, organized labour has undoubtedly become less visible on the national political stage over the course of the last 30 years. This reality is reflected in how mainstream newspapers in both Canada and the U.S. cover this topic. We can see this through the loss of the labour reporter: how did this position get phased out without so much as a peep from the general public?
While it is true that different newspapers have different sections and focuses, overall, there has been a real disappearance of labour reporting in most mainstream papers. Even in newspapers that are thought to be left-leaning, the Toronto Star for example, union and labour news pieces are difficult to come across. When unions are covered, these stories tend to be negative: labour has become a dirty word for many journalists and editors.
When business-oriented strategies rule at newspapers, stories that do not resonate with elites in society tend to get ignored. An excellent example of this is the disappearance of a ‘labour beat’ reporter in the Globe and Mail: there is still a ‘Business’ section in this paper, but there is no longer a reporter responsible for dealing with unions and labour relation issues.
Fewer North Americans are currently in unions, but this still does not seem to justify the lack of the labour reporting in most major newspapers. Instead, it seems to be indicative of the ideological swing to the right in many mainstream news outlets. Covering labour, and giving unions a sense of legitimacy, is something that many newspapers are loathe to do, both for their own sake, and for the sake of their supporters in big business. This is also evident when we look at the sheer number of media outlets owned by conglomerates.
At the same time, labour is also partly responsible for their retreat from mainstream news, and has brought this lack of coverage on itself. We see this manifested in the fact that labour has a less positive presence in the media due to years of in-fighting between different members of major unions. As well, the overall sense of bitterness that certain strikes have caused with the general public is a factor that cannot be ignored.
As for what happens next, it seems unlikely that a move back to a labour beat is going to happen at any time soon, but stranger things have happened…
