Johnston Press is suffering at the hands of the recession in the same manner as Newsquest, Trinity Mirror, GMG and a host of other regional newspaper publishers and is looking to the same cost cutting solutions to forge a course forwards.

NUJ members at the papers are now balloting for industrial action and are widely expected to join their colleagues over in Leeds, who have already taken thirteen days of action over compulsory redundancies and editorial quality.

Chris Morley, NUJ Northern Organiser, commented: “This is the second set of proposals management have put forward.

“The chapel are worried it could lead to compulsory redundancies and make it impossible to run the papers to an acceptable standard.

“The chapel are adamant that they want to defend union members from compulsory redundancy and to defend editorial standards.”

Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary, added: “The East Lancashire chapel have the union’s full support as they stand up for journalists and journalism.”

Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!

Comments (7)

5  By Donnacha DeLong , on 21-03-2009 07:17 Shame on you for criticising the union for not doing something it's trying very hard to do. The union is fighting the biggest wave of cuts the industry has ever seen and officials and reps are run ragged. The obstacle to full-on joint action isn't the union or lack of joined up thinking, it's the anti-trade union laws left over from the Thatcher era. Report

7  By Donnacha DeLong , on 21-03-2009 18:11 My "labour luvvies"? I'm an anarchist, I despise the lot of 'em. Thatcher made the laws and the Neo-Thatcherites of Nu Labour kept them. What's your point? It's the ridiculous processes involved in balloting for action that are the biggest drawback to a union-wide fightback. But we're working on it. Report