A Yorkshire NUJ chapel has written a protest letter to its editor after he crossed the picket line in a recent industrial dispute at a neighbouring newspaper.

National Union of Journalists members at Yorkshire Post Newspapers last month held two four-day strikes in a dispute over redundancies.

The Halifax Courier NUJ chapel says it is disappointed that editor John Furbisher crossed the picket line in Leeds and that its members’ work was used to fill the papers.

The letter said: “The Courier chapel wishes to register its protest in the strongest possible terms about the use of our members’ work to fill the pages of any publication involved in the current dispute between Yorkshire Post Newspapers and Johnston Press.

“We are also deeply disappointed that you crossed the picket line in Leeds on February 19.

“We have some sympathy with the difficult position editors find themselves in when faced with picket lines outside their offices.

“But the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post are not your papers.”

Mr Furbisher, who is a former deputy editor of the Yorkshire Post, has declined to comment.