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Tindle strikers to ballot for further action

A group of journalists who held two three-day strikes over their company’s refusal to employ more staff are to ballot for further action –  claiming they have had no response from management.

Nine members of the National Union of Journalists working for Tindle Newspaper’s North London and Herts Newspapers in Enfield held the walkout last month over the group’s policy of not automatically replacing those who leave.

The journalists, known as the Enfield Nine, wanted a guarantee from management that if any more staff members left, they would be replaced.

They claim there has been a lack of response from management after returning to work from the strike but this has been denied by the company, which says it has been in contact with the union and arranged a meeting.

The chapel has now revealed they will be balloted for further industrial action at the titles in the coming weeks, which includes the Enfield Advertiser, Enfield Gazette, the Winchmore Hill Advertiser & Herald and the Haringey Advertiser.

A Twitter post by the chapel said: “Enfield nine balloting for industrial action again after no response from Tindle management since staff returned after strike two weeks ago.”

Father of Chapel Jonathan Lovett said: “We feel insulted and demeaned by the fact that they are just not listening. We might be having a meeting this week but it will be the first one.”

He added the company had also announced a cut to freelance cover, which would affect some photographers and sub-editors who did work for the papers.

But Peter Edwards, managing director of the publisher’s London Weekly Newspapers, said he had a meeting arranged with the NUJ and has been in contact a number of times with both the union’s head office and the Father of Chapel.

He said: “Our aim has been to work with the NUJ to get these papers back into profit and that is what we would have liked to have done.”

When the strike started, a statement from the Tindle board warned it could have to make its first editorial redundancies since the recession started at the Enfield centre because of losses at the titles.

The walkout included a mock funeral procession through Enfield to mark what the union said is the slow death of the papers and also a protest outside the company’s headquarters in Farnham.