The NUJ in the newsNUJ Left is backing today’s call by the chapel at the Johnston-owned Halifax Courier for a national strike to fight the cuts in local media.
The members in Yorkshire have written to general secretary Jeremy Dear, and their colleagues in the Johnston group chapel, to demand the union organises what would be the first national strike in provincial newspapers for 30 years.
Motion passed at the March meeting of NUJ press and PR branch:
‘This branch welcomes the march for jobs, justice and climate to be held in London on Saturday 28 March 2009 at the time of the G20, organised by the TUC, trade unions, and a wide range of NGOs, religious and other campaigning pressure groups.
The branch further notes the appalling rise in redundancies and unemployment both within our own industry and across the wider economy as a result on the continuing and worsening economic crisis, with even official unemployment figures expected to exceed three million by the end of the year.
The latest announcements by Guardian Media Group that it plans to make half its journalists in the Manchester area redundant and sack 95 workers in Surrey and Berkshire, are shameful and should be condemned by everyone on the left.
By Jane Aitchison, PCS DWP group president
The strikes by our comrades in the NUJ at the Yorkshire Post and Evening Post are as important as they are inspirational.
What the last few weeks have demonstrated, with no room for doubt or misrepresentation, is how highly regarded by the people of Leeds the journalists on these papers are.
Interesting to read Trinity Mirror chief executive bigging up the importance of local newspapers in Media Guardian.
Marvel at the concern for civic life dripping from her utterances that “this is about who turns up to the local courts each morning. Who is it who are holding the councils to account, where is that planning application being properly debated? Local newspapers and we absolutely believe in them.”
NUJ Left activist and protest photographer Marc Vallee has spent the last three months investigating police surveillance of journalists and protesters with the Guardian’s Paul Lewis.
This is what they found out. The video footage shows a terrifying lack of understanding of the role of the press in documenting protest, particularly considering the massive abuse of power that is taking place as their words are spoken.
Journalists at the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post will stage an open-ended mandatory chapel meeting from 7am tomorrow in the latest round of industrial action in defence of jobs and the quality of their newspapers.
They will also be on strike on Saturday 7 March, a key day for sports coverage, and Wednesday 11 March, the day the owner of both papers, Edinburgh-based Johnston Press, releases its profits for 2008.
Journalists in Leeds go back to work today after their second four-day strike with a moral victory under their belts, if not a campaign victory yet.
The strength of the chapel, and the support the strike has picked up from the local community, political leaders and famous names, has been fantastic.
As the Yorkshire Post journalists begin their last day of action of their second four-day strike it is clear that support and morale remain high.
But we should not be under any illusion about the scale of the task facing the NUJ as we continue the struggle against Johnston Press.