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“Only place where I can get a consistently high quality of union stories and graphics.”
The Canadian Association of Labour Media is a network of union publications and editors that provides labour-friendly stories and graphics and training for labour communicators.
The major affiliates of the Canadian Labour Congress set up CALM in 1976. In 1986 it launched its news and graphics services.
Starter kit
When you join CALM you get a starter kit to help you out.
• booklet on editing and designing a union newsletter
• booklet on libel and avoiding it
• booklet on copyright
(Don’t forget to lend them to new members of your newsletter committee. Or, you can order more copies.)
Labour News and Graphics (LNG)
CALM produces 10 pages of stories and about six graphics 10 times a year for members to use in their newsletters. Members receive hard copy by mail and can also download them from the CALM web site. The stories can be features, short news reports, opinon pieces, humour or filler. They tend to cover items of national, international or regional interest. The graphics are usually editorial cartoons.
CALM Graphics
This 10-page compilation of about 70 illustrations and cartoons comes out four times a year in hard copy and on the web site. At the end of each year, members get a CD with 145 graphics on it—drawings that won’t date. In all, CALM members receive 300 new graphics a year. The graphics are indexed on the web site.
CALM ideas
CALM also produces CALMideas is a newsletter on how to to do a newsletter. It contains articles on writing, design, photography, grammar, ideas and other useful tips for editors. It’s also available on line.
CALM awards recognize excellence
The annual CALM awards recognize excellence in union publications and productions. Entries are judged by independent experts in a variety of categories and classes. The winners get beautifully designed certificates that they’re proud to display.
CALM helps editors build skills
CALM holds at least one training conference a year, in the spring. For two tiring days, editors attend hands-on workshops to acquire new skills or improve on what they already know. Writing, editing, photography, design, desktop publishing and creating web pages are some of the topics taught by seasoned labour communicators. And CALM conferences are always a source of new ideas.
CALM members
CALM has about 450 members in Canada and elsewhere. Some CALM newsletters are run off on a photocopier and handed out in the workplace. Others are printed in several colours and mailed to every member of the union. The rest are in between. Circulation can be less than a hundred or more than a hundred thousand.
In addition to newsletters, CALM members produce web sites, posters, videos, brochures and anything else that falls into the general realm of communications.
Unions not affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress, labour organizations outside Canada, and non-profit, membership-based organizations can also join CALM.
The cost of membership is based on circulation and starts at $100 a year.
CALM members have a responsibility too. They regularly send a copy of their newsletter to the CALM editor, and they give CALM permission to use material for which they own the copyright.
Subscribers
For $275 a year, labour-friendly organizations and individuals can receive CALM services. They can't vote or receive CALM awards.
To find out about joining CALM, go to join us.
| CALM executive | |
| Pat Van Horne, President | USW Communications, Toronto |
| Mikael Swayze, Secretary-Treasurer | CUPE Local 3902, Toronto |
| Pierre Lebel, Past-President | PSAC-AFCP Communications, Ottawa |
| Cara Banks | Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Regina |
| Denis Boivin | PSAC-AFCP Communications, Ottawa |
| Mike Freeman | United Food and Commercial Workers, Toronto |
| Doreen Meyer | Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ottawa |
| Karrie Ouchas | OPSEU Local 340, Oshawa |
| Randy Robinson | Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Toronto |
| Frank Saptel | International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers |
| Joe Sarnovsky | CAW Local 222, Oshawa |
| Dan Tatroff | B.C. Nurses' Unoin, Burnaby |
| Michelle Walsh | CEP Communications, Ottawa |
| Joan Wark | Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, Halifax |
CALM staff
Rosemarie Bahr and Sally Leitch do the day-to-day CALM work from Toronto. They report to the CALM executive council, which is elected every three years by the CALM members
The CALM editor, Rosemarie Bahr, has been writing, editing and doing communications for unions and other like-minded organizations forever. She’s been CALM editor since 1998. Occasionally, she also manages election campaigns.
Associate editor Sally Leitch also joined CALM in 1998 with a background in publicity and event organizing. Before CALM, she worked for a labour lawyer, a theatre, a Cabinet minister and as a woodworker.