Union members at Middlesbrough-based title the Evening Gazette have become the latest Trinity Mirror journalists to ballot for industrial action.

The news comes as a result of plans announced earlier this month by the company to reduce the payroll by seven editorial roles.

These are in addition to the five jobs losses which happened before Christmas at the paper.

Similar ballots are currently on-going at Trinity Mirror’s titles in the West Midlands and Newcastle.

The Middlesbrough National Union of Journalists chapel has written to editor Darren Thwaites expressing their concerns about the plans.

The letter, which can be read in full on the NUJ’s website, says: “This letter is to express the dismay the chapel feels after the announcement that seven jobs in the editorial department are to be lost.

“We are further disappointed that some of these will be by compulsory redundancy and that a ‘deselection process’ is now under way.

“We have shown real professionalism and dedication to adapt to new working practices, embrace new skills and technologies, cope with district office closures and function in new departments with increased workloads to produce consistent top quality content across a range of print and multimedia platforms.

“However, we feel that these latest cuts by Trinity Mirror will have a marked detrimental impact on the quality of the product.

“We anticipate morale dipping and some staff, in search of more security, moving on with valuable skills and experience lost.

“However, we feel we have to draw a line in the sand and make a statement for we fear for the future direction and viability of the Evening Gazette.”

A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “We are disappointed that the NUJ has chosen this course of action which does nothing to address the commercial challenges facing our North East businesses.

“However, we are continuing to work with the NUJ and all staff to try to achieve as many of these redundancies as possbile by voluntary means.”

Comments

Hacked off (16/07/2009 15:17:09)
Funny that, TM said exactly the same thing when the Midlands ballot was announced. They wouldn’t just be re-hashing the same statement again now would they?

Colin (16/07/2009 15:21:45)
No more rehashing than the NUJ rehashes the tired old route of threatening union action, passing motions of no confidence etc which do nothing other than ensure the union gets to hear the sound of its own voice

the red postman (17/07/2009 10:26:21)
It’s not ‘the union’ doing anything, it’s depressed, demoralised staff protesting at continuing threats to their jobs and titles as TM again applies its default reaction – if in doubt, cut.