Journalists in Darlington have joined the growing tide of unrest at Newsquest by voting to take strike action, as the National Union of Journalists mounts a nationwide campaign against the company.
Members of the NUJ at titles including The Northern Echo, Darlington and Stockton Times and Durham Times voted 78pc in favour of strike action.
Last month, members of the chapel decided to ballot for industrial action after the group announced plans to merge the Echo’s subbing operation with that of the Darlington and Stockton Times, putting eight jobs at risk.
The move comes as NUJ members at the Southern Daily Echo and Brighton’s The Argus announced they will hold a two-day strike next Tuesday and Wednesday over job losses and Newsquest’s continuing pay freeze.
And union members in Bradford are being balloted on industrial action over proposals to merge the daily and weekly newsrooms, putting jobs at risk, while journalists at York, Bolton, Blackburn and Newsquest Hampshire in Andover will also be balloted over the pay freeze.
The NUJ’s National Executive Committee says it is now spearheading a national campaign against the situation at Newsquest.
NUJ Deputy General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet, who is heading the union’s campaign, said: “NUJ members at Newsquest are standing up for journalists and journalism. They are fighting the corporate greed which is doing so much damage to their papers and websites and they have the full support of the union.
“There has been a magnificent campaign by our members at Newsquest to resist the attacks on jobs, pay, pensions and quality journalism.
“There is a real determination amongst members to work together to put collective pressure on the company. NUJ members at Newsquest have the entire union supporting them in the fight to put journalism before profit.
“Our strength is in our support for each other as trade union members and I’m pleased the NEC has agreed the union will prioritise this campaign.”
Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson was not available for comment at the time of publication.
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Fantastic news. Well done the NUJ. The chickens are coming home to roost for ‘Jim’ Davidson. Strength through unity… it’s the only way.
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The best protest Newsquest staffers should make is to look elsewhere for jobs because they’re losing pay on strike days and working for a flintlike company which won’t budge. Best to boycott Newsquest vacancies. It pays its top staff lots of money and treats rank and file with icy disregard. It has little integrity. Any junior coming into journalism now faces a tougher than ever challenge and would do well to try something else. The happy, golden days are over with most papers in decline and more cuts and centralisation of production to come.
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I’ll vote for action. It’s the only way.
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The reporting teams at Darlington were merged several years ago, and the proposed merging of the subbing desks completes the process and creates, some would argue, a more efficient system. What has not been taken into account is that an editor has been rendered superfluous to requirements. The editor remains superfluous, and employed, because the proposed system has been devised, implemented and controlled by the editors of the two main titles. A possible way forward is for the NUJ to suggest to Newsquest: if you want to make savings, if you want to increase your profits – fine. Let’s talk redundancies – but with the proviso that the first cut, and the biggest cut, and the most obvious and least damaging cut, is the superfluous editor.
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Good luck to all involved in this. Newsquest is the worst of a bad bunch when it comes to ownership. I hope this action brings them to their knees. Give ’em hell guys.
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This is great news, not only for journalists but also for journalism. Newsquest is systematically destroying regional journalism with its cutbacks, ‘streamlining’, pay freezes and general treatment of staff which forces talented journalists into other industries. Lets hope this action stops the rot. Congratulations to everyone taking part in industrial action. It’s not an easy thing to do but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.
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As someone working at Newsquest North-East, I would disagree that two editors is superfluous. Each of the editors is fiercely devoted to their paper and would much rather, I am sure, be investing in staff rather than cutting. Two editors is necessary for the same reason as it is important to have separate subbing teams – to maintain the strength, individuality and understanding of the readership that has made the titles what they are. It’s not just a question of subbing the same stories in different papers – there are different requirements for titles (one might treat a story as a brief, for another it might count as a page lead to their readership), dealing with correspondent copy, elements of writer-subbing, promoting and pushing the papers each respective sub works for and bringing their particular expertise to bear on relative fields. If these papers are to continue to be successful, vibrant and representative of their community, that drive and expertise is needed – starting with two strong editors. Newspapers need to serve their readership – you can’t do that effectively if you’ve only got one man at the helm trying to serve a number of different readerships.
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