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Fresh strike ballot at Midlands titles

Union members at the Birmingham Post and Mail are being balloted again over possible industrial action.

This latest ballot is being held amid claims by the National Union of Journalists that parent company Trinity Mirror is planning to make further cutbacks among its production sub-editors at the end of the month.

Its BPM Media division has seen a raft of changes in recent months including the Post switching from daily to weekly and the Mail moving to overnight printing.

The NUJ says journalists at the Birmingham centre, who have now received their ballot papers, are worried the move will create unmanageable workloads for the remaining staff.

A statement posted on the union’s website said: “Management claim that a new editorial computer system means the cuts can be made without damaging quality.

“But NUJ members say that in practice putting the papers together requires more work than the company expected.

“They also say that the move to a weekly Post and a new publishing schedule for the Mail mean that in some cases workload has actually increased.”

This is the latest in a series of ballots at BPM Media stretching back to autumn 2008, with previous votes focussing on possible compulsory redundancies.

NUJ northern organiser Chris Morley said: “Once again Trinity Mirror management are forcing our members to resort to an industrial action ballot to make the company listen to their concerns.

“But this time it isn’t just about defending members at risk of compulsory redundancy but also about being asked to stand up against rising and unreasonable workloads and levels of stress caused by management cuts.

“Left unresolved, these problems can affect people’s longer term health and well-being, as well as family relationships. They also damage productivity at work and are bad for business.”

Trinity Mirror declined to comment on this story.

Comments

All Subbed Out (18/01/2010 13:50:58)
After counting the number of literals and factual errors in a recent edition of the Sunday Mercury – such as renaming Wellingborough in Northamptonshire as Wellington – I was under the distinct impression that BPM had already done away with sub-editors altogether.

Johnston Pressure (18/01/2010 15:52:13)
The Mercury and the Northants on Sunday arer Johnston Press ‘products’ – and, yes, JP has got rid of a lot of subs, with the rest living on borrowed time before the hub is shipped off to Taiwan or somewhere.

Sack the Panda (19/01/2010 11:48:50)
Lets hope they go ahead and strike this time after going close so many times, Trinity only understand one thing – money!

your mum (20/01/2010 14:13:12)
you smell realy bad After counting the number of literals and factual errors in a recent edition of the Sunday Mercury – such as renaming Wellingborough in Northamptonshire as Wellington – I was under the distinct impression that BPM had already done away with sub-editors altogether.