Benefits of a CALM Membership
Our Website
The CALM website is a portal to a range of services to labour communicators who want to engage their membership and the public. It also serves as a point of contact for anyone looking for information about the labour movement and communications. Through the website’s login, CALM members can access all of CALM’s content for use in their own communications materials. CALM members can have as many logins as they require. To update your login information, or to obtain a new account, contact us today.Labour News, Visuals, Infographics
CALM publishes original and aggregated labour news, opinion and features. Through a partnership with rabble.ca, CALM is able to provide original news coverage of labour struggles from across Canada. CALM’s editors also write content for use by its members. CALM produces infographics and visuals that members can download and use in their print or online newsletters. If your organization is searching for something in particular, don’t hesitate to be in touch for help.Annual CALM Awards
The annual CALM awards recognize excellence in union publications and productions in a variety of categories and classes. Entries are judged by independent experts and awarded at the annual CALM conference. You must be a CALM member in good standing to enter the awards.CALM Conferences – Building Skills
CALM holds a yearly conference in the spring, alternating between the west and east of Canada. The conference is an opportunity to meet and network with colleagues from across the country. Seasoned communicators facilitate workshops designed to help members acquire new skills in writing, editing, photography, design, video, web design and development, and strategic communications and organizing. The 2020 CALM conference will be announced early in 2020. CALM members pay a discounted delegate fee. For many unions, the discount alone pays for CALM membership.Media Trainings
For those members looking for more specialized trainings, CALM offers tailored workshops that will help members developing skills in creating media strategies for longer-term campaigns, framing, story-based narrative analysis, understanding the media story cycle, and building relationships with reporters. For more information about workshops and training, please contact the CALM editor.Media Strategy Consulting
Not sure about the strength of your media strategy for a campaign or issue? Want to improve the chances of getting your event or action covered by a daily or national newspaper or media outlet? We can arrange a session over the phone or Skype to offer constructive feedback and suggestions about your media strategy, framing, messaging, pitches, and other elements of your communications and media work. For requests or more information, or to schedule a call, please contact us. The Canadian Association of Labour Media provides training, news and online services to a network of union activists and editors. We aim to strengthen the labour movement by building media literacy. The major affiliates of the Canadian Labour Congress set up CALM in 1976.Frequently Asked Questions
CALM is a communications co-operative that has 200 union locals, federations, labour councils and organizations among its membership. We pool our resources to offer high-quality services, content, training and consultation to our members.
Membership is open to local, regional, provincial, national, international unions and labour councils and federations, as well as progressive organizations, freelancers, radio/television outlets and retirees. CALM membership is usually taken out by communications staff and volunteers as they will find CALM’s services most useful.
Your membership supports and enhances progressive labour communications across Canada. By being a CALM Member you get full access to all of our content and resources, discounted event fees, the ability to post jobs to our job board at no cost, and you can enter the CALM Awards – Canada’s only labour communications awards program. CALM also offers specialized workshops customized to your organization’s needs offered free virtually or at-cost in-person, media strategy and general communications consulting and much more!
Membership rates for unions and associations are based on the number of members in your organization. Membership rates for non-union organizations, freelancers or retirees are flat. The full membership dues rates start at $125 per year and are available here.
Yes! CALM staff have expertise to coordinate personalized professional development. Both CALM staff have experience holding public office and in journalism, and can create a program for your union’s leadership that not only equals what you pay for from private PR firms, but adds a labour analysis to help you understand the forces you can’t control, and better navigate the forces you can control.
All of our virtual training is offered for free. If the training requires us to present to you in-person, our rates are set to cover our costs. As a co-operative, CALM staff serve the membership, and our services are only intended to help fund the costs that go into coordinating these services.
Yes! We are available to bounce ideas around, be a second pair of eyes on a press release or a document, or just to vent. We also have a handle on trends all across Canada so if you have a question about what other unions are doing, be in touch!
Absolutely! We understand that you work in an incredibly busy and hectic environment. In addition to being able to help to create professional development resources for your team, we can also help you identify translators to undertake multi-lingual translations or help investigate emerging social media trends, or more. And, if your union hires a lot, you will save money on job posting services that don’t target your posts to a progressive audience. It is through the solidarity of large unions that we are able to offer services to small ones, so your membership also helps us help your locals.
Our events occur all across Canada. Each spring we host our annual conference in a different location in Canada.
We also host a number of regional (mini) conferences and professional development trainings (single day events) throughout the year in different cities. CALM membership saves you hundreds of dollars on delegate fees.
Members can download web resolution images online directly, if you need a higher resolution for print email calm staff for a high resolution copy.
Yes. Posts to the CALM Job Board cost $50 plus HST.
CALM’s services are constantly improving thanks to feedback from CALM members. If you have an idea that you think CALM can help you with, please contact editor@calm.ca.
Member Testimonials
For me, the most valuable part of being a CALM member is attending the yearly conference. I love the chance it gives me to meet with union communicators from across the country. Whether they’re from smallest locals or the largest national unions, every member has a unique insight into how best to bring labour’s message to workers.
Joining CALM after an extended medical leave was an important step to re-entering my field with confidence. As a sole proprietorship/freelancer, the opportunities CALM provided exceeded my expectations. I value interacting and connecting with like-minded members, upgrading my skills, and being able to stay current on topical issues.
We are always looking for more ideas and training and CALM provides that for us. CALM events let us network and meet CALM members from other locals and unions across the country.
I like that I am part of a community that shares information about the labour movement in Canada. We use the CALM website frequently and love their Job Board, images, and news pages
The CALM educational offerings have always given us information we needed, and sometimes information we didn’t know we needed. What has been the most invaluable resource for us though is the community of CALM members who are all dealing with similar issues and happy to share their experience and expertise.
Beyond the resources CALM provides, connection to other union communicators is incredibly valuable. Sharing knowledge and learning from the experience of others raises the bar for the whole labour movement.
Become a CALM Member