NUJ

NUJ journalists at local newspapers The York Press and The Gazette and Herald of Malton have begun a 5-day walk-out over below inflation pay rises and continually worsening pay conditions. The strikers are demanding a 3.5% pay increase, in line with the offers made to journalists at other UK local newspapers owned by the same company, US media giant Gannet.

The union chapel was due to stage industrial action tomorrow, and then an open-ended disruptive mandatory chapel meeting on Monday to coincide with the union-wide Stand Up for Journalism campaign. But an about-turn by the company managed to persuade members to call off their planned action.

Details are being given to staff at briefings across the country, with Director-General Mark Thompson explaining that he wanted to announce the layoffs quickly to avoid plunging the corporation into uncertainty.

Staff yesterday claimed morale was lower than at any point since John Birt's directorship as union leaders met the BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons.

A packed chapel meeting voted unanimously for the move after exhausting the newspaper's internal disputes procedures in a long-running row over non-replacement of leavers or long delays in getting vacancies filled.

NUJ representatives from across the BBC unanimously backed strike action in the face of a refusal by BBC managers to reconsider plans for up to six compulsory redundancies. Bectu members will also be out on strike.

Since the move, working practices for NUJ members have included 24/7 working rotas, and 54 compulsory redundancies. The NUJ claims these changes form part of a long running growth of anger and dissatisfaction among staff at the national paper, where management have ignored or overidden complaints and grievances by the staff.

A short account by one worker in a local UK newspaper of a successful NUJ unionisation drive he was involved in in 2006