NUJ to stage day of actions against Johnston Press
By Leah McBride Mensching, Monday 18 August 2008 at 18:27 :: Labor & Employment :: #2122 :: rss
Representatives from the UK National Union of Journalists at main publishing centres for Johnston Press have organised a group-wide day of actions that will aim to show just how badly local newspapers are hurting, the NUJ announced on its Web site Monday.
The actions are being taken at the UK's largest regional publishing company due to increasing amounts of redundancies, budget cuts, recruitment freezes and closures of titles and offices across the United Kingdom and Ireland, the announcement stated.
“NUJ reps from across Johnston Press’s main publishing centres have unanimously backed a motion of no confidence in the company’s senior management - and urged shareholders and communities to act to save their local papers,” the announcement stated.
Union representatives met Wednesday to plan the campaign, which will protest job cuts and newspaper closures. They are also backing “calls for industrial action across the group,” and will consult union members in the United Kingdom and Ireland over whether they will strike, the NUJ reported on its Web site.
Cutting jobs and not replacing other staff members is putting “intolerable pressures on remaining journalists or leading to situations where papers re unable to cover their local areas,” the NUJ stated. For example, one newspaper “is restricted to just 12 photographs a week because of the lack of money to pay photographers, another cannot send a photographer to jobs after 5.30pm because of budget cuts. Another title has almost 25 percent of editorial posts currently unfilled and reps report that morale across the group is at rock bottom.”
Newspapers being hurt by cuts include the Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and the Sheffield Star, the NUJ stated. Johnston Press also recently announced it will close the Glasgow East News and the Ayrshire Extra.
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