Journalists at Trinity Mirror’s Midlands titles are to ballot for industrial action over possible futher job cuts and changes to their papers.

National Union of Journalists’ members at the Birmingham Post and Mail, Coventry Newspapers and Trinity Mirror Midlands Weeklies claim the company is planning to close eight weeklies, reduce the frequency of the Birmingham Post and switch the Mail to overnight printing.

As yet these claims have been neither confirmed nor denied by the company.

In a statement issued this morning in response to the strike ballot move, it accused the union of being “highly irresponsible.”

The NUJ claimed last week to have seen internal documents setting out the proposed cutbacks. Today it said members in all three chapels agreed to ballot when the company refused to rule out the changes or compulsory redundancies as a result.

Earlier this month the NUJ chapels presented their own blueprint for the future of the titles which was welcomed by bosses.

NUJ members are being balloted in Birmingham, Cannock, Coventry, Hinckley, Solihull, Stafford and Walsall and notification was sent to management yesterday.

NUJ northern organiser Chris Morley said: “In the last year these titles have lost more than 70 editorial posts and the journalists who work for them have had their workloads expanded to serve websites as well as papers.

“More cuts will mean an impossible workload and a drastic reduction of the local news and information service.”

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear added: “These journalists are proud of the titles they work for which have a place at the heart of their communities.

“They want to protect jobs and provide a service to be proud of for readers and advertisers.

“If such major cuts go through, the viability of all the papers will be in doubt. The whole union will support them.”

A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “We are very disappointed that the NUJ has chosen this course of action without even engaging with us in our agreed dispute resolution procedures.

“It is highly irresponsible and does absolutely nothing to address the very real issues facing our Midlands businesses, and puts into stark perspective their recent claims to be working constructively with us.

“They would do better to start acknowledging the true scale of the commercial challenges facing newspaper businesses and be prepared to have meaningful discussions with us.”

Comments

ProperHack (30/06/2009 09:57:00)
Anyone who competes against some of these weekly titles will re-joice at the possibility of them closing. Lets be honest. Not every newspaper is a quality product full of quality news and some of these midlands weeklies are a joke! The ‘news’ they carry makes long-standing journalists like myself hold my head in my hands. I know this is generalising and I am sure it isn’t the case at every office and I am sure this dumbing down of news is as a result of bad management and cuts which mean journalists can’t do their jobs properly but seriously, UFOs, creatures, wolfmen and even loch ness links are an embarrassment to the rest of us in the industry. Perhaps their loss will lead to a quality replacement. Not all newspapers should be protected, some just aren’t worth it.

Nick White (30/06/2009 10:36:27)
Trinity Mirror employees have every right to object without feeling intimidated. Whatever happened to job security?
The Trinity Mirror titles in the Midlands are good quality. I used to work in the advertising department at the Post & Mail and was treated well. But it really isn’t fair on journalists to have to work with this pressure and uncertainty.
There must be another way to resolve the financial problems than with job cuts! Cutting staff is not going to help because it will effect sales – as the papers will decrease in quality.
More dialogue between the NUJ and Trinity Mirror needs to take place. And staff need to be re-assured.

Michael (30/06/2009 10:46:20)
True, oh ProperHack. But if the papers had better editors who could give better guidance to often junior reporters, the quality of news would be better. How many papers now have editors who are in their 20s and scarcely out of their training period?

JP JP (30/06/2009 11:05:46)
ProperHack, you mean to say you want quality stories?! That’s a luxury – blame the profit-hungry management. Just getting the paper out on time with a heavily-slashed workforce and scant resources is a remarkable achievement in such circumstances.

Observer (30/06/2009 12:47:09)
I imagine this dispute and possibility of strike action is being reported by all the Trinity Mirror titles as it would be if it were any other industry? Then again, he who pays the piper.
Trinity Mirror won’t say what’s happening until it has to and will dress it up as essential because of the recession.
The senior manager there couldn’t see beyond the end of their bank balances if they wanted to. Short-term decisions will once again be made by small-minded individuals. Simple as that.

Neil (30/06/2009 14:56:46)
Why is it always the NUJ national folk who pop up and talk about Birmingham? It’s almost as if someone at the NUJ has an axe to grind with the Birmingham papers. And if the reporters at the Birmingham Post and Mail have only had their workload expanded in the last year to work for the websites as well, then they’re lucky. I believe they also got a payrise for it – which is more than we did at my place of work when we had to do web work as well

lost vegas (01/07/2009 12:47:58)
I hope Hinckley Times editor Simon Holden is fighting for his staff and lobbying senior managers about any possible cuts at his titles.