“I was on the demo on the picket line. The mood was high spirited, buoyed up by the incredible support from passers by, cars, taxis, buses all hooting and people waving.
“‘Old timers’ of previous strikes were stunned by the level of support from the community.

“There were hundreds of supporters for the picket line and demo, covering at least the three entrances visible from the main roads out of Leeds.”

This was how one strike supporter summed up the mood on the first day of the heroic Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post strike yesterday.

The walkout by 141 NUJ members is in opposition to the imposition of compulsory redundancies affecting 18 jobs, around 10% of the editorial workforce.

The strikers are demanding that management drop the compulsory element of the redundancies and agree to a fairer settlement. They also aim to highlight the effects that budget cuts and staff reductions are increasingly having on the quality of the newspapers .

It is clear that support for the strike has been overwhelming, the chapel is rock solid and the community has placed itself four-square behind the strikers.

Joint FoC Pete Lazenby, as inspirational a chapel leader as you could hope for, says managing director Chris Green tried to characterise their action as a “capitalist” strike solely about money.

This bizarre ‘misunderstanding’ of why workers take industrial action in defence of their jobs, their livelihoods and the health and vitality of the newspapers they are proud to work on, explains why the eleventh-hour talks to avert the strike yielded nothing.

A bulletin put round on the picket line yesterday could not be clearer in describing what this dispute is about: “We are proud of our newspapers and our new media work.

“We are proud of the work we do on behalf of the communities we serve, of the many campaigns we have taken up on their behalf.

“The constant pressure on budgets and the non-replacement of staff are attacks on the quality of the news we are able to produce.

“Chris Green and the editors have stated openly that this is the case, and that they accept this as necessary to maintain profits.”

NUJ Left supports wholeheartedly the Leeds strikers’ struggle against compulsory redundancies which Johnston Press management, who have profited massively over the years from our members’ hard work and dedication, shamefully regard as inevitable.

We believe this strike, which is well organised and well supported, will boost the confidence of members in Leeds, many of whom are taking industrial action for the first time.

But it will also show members from across the country that we can say no to the bosses’ cuts – we can declare that this crisis is of their making, not ours, and we will not pay for it with our jobs or in our pay packets.

‘Brilliant and liberating’

In a video of the first day of the strike, posted on the NUJ website, NUJ deputy general secretary Michelle Stanistreet says that for Johnston Press, which has stripped so much money out of its titles, to now claim to be in financial difficulty is insulting.

“Instead of ploughing money back into the titles to make them thrive more to serve the communities better, what they’ve done is cream off the money,” Michelle says.

“They’ve taken it for their pension pots, they’ve taken lavish salaries, they’ve taken huge bungs of bonuses.”

Now, she adds, they want NUJ members to pay with their jobs. “We’re saying no, and that communities deserve better.”

The video also includes an interview with Pete Lazenby, who even as a veteran activist describes the strike as “brilliant” and “liberating”. He says the support has been enormous, with even local coppers giving them the thumbs-up from a passing police car.

The turnout has been massive and is “going to be the same until we get some sense out of the management,” he says.

Leeds band the Shakinouts also appear on the video performing their strike song ‘Evening Post’.

Solidarity with the strikers

If management fail to see sense, the strike will run until Sunday 22 February and again next week from Thursday 26 February to Sunday 1 March.

NUJ members will be picketing the Yorkshire Post building in Leeds from 7am to 6pm on Thursdays and Fridays of the strike. There will also be pickets over the weekends.

They are asking friends and supporters to join them at picket line rallies from 4pm to 5.30 pm on the Thursdays and Fridays of the strike.

This is a fight for jobs, for justice, and for the maintenance of quality journalism in the regional press.

Please give whatever support you can by sending messages of support, visiting picket lines and donating money.

- Cheques should be made payable to: ‘EP/YP joint chapel branch’ and sent to PO Box HP346, Leeds LS6 1UL

- Donations online to: Unity Trust Bank account 35017589 sort code 08-60-01

- Messages of support to: nujleedsstrikers@googlemail.com and 07549 170401

- Join the Save Leeds’ Local Newspapers facebook group

- Keep up to date with strike news on the NUJ website

- And follow updates on the dispute blog

Send letters of protest over job losses and their effect on newspapers to:

- Chris Green, managing director, Yorkshire Post Newspapers, Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 1RF

- John Fry, chief executive, Johnston Press, 53, Manor Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7EG

Posted by NUJ Left