Journalists at a Lancashire newspaper group are to embark on indefinite industrial action next week.

Members of the National Union of Journalists chapel at the Blackpool Gazette and Herald will be working to rule from next Wednesday.

The move follows two separate days of work-to-rule industrial action within the past fortnight and the news that journalists across the Gazette and Herald’s parent company Johnston Press are due to be balloted over nationwide strike action within the coming weeks.

Management in the Lancashire town has been informed this afternoon of the NUJ’s plans and given seven days notice of the intended action which involves around 30 union members.

The strike action is being held as JP introduces its new Atex content management system which enables reporters to write stories and headlines directly onto template pages, reducing the need for sub-editors.

The NUJ says that the company is failing to consult meaningfully with staff at the Gazette and Herald over possible changes.

Northern area organiser Chris Morley said: “Members are angry and dismayed at the effect the introduction of Atex is having on their ability to do their jobs and on their working conditions, as well as the damage it is doing to the quality of the papers.”

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear added: “No-one should underestimate how angry journalists throughout the Johnston group are at the attacks on their jobs and working conditions and how despite the fact that they have taken on more skills and more work they are being rewarded with a further pay freeze and a new threat to jobs.

“The company must sit down with the union to negotiate. It is not too late for the management to start talking.”

Johnston Press declined to comment on this story.

Comments

StraightTalking (08/04/2010 10:55:15)
I’m amazed more hasn’t been made of the fact the John Fry is now earning in excess of £1m while editorial, advertising and circulation staff are all enjoying their second year of pay freezes.
I suspect all our MDs and other directors are also enjoying pay rises/bonuses this year – after all they made a big deal of not taking them in 2008, but when the last pay freeze was announced they were suddenly remarkably quiet on the issue.
Good on the people of Lancashire and their work-to-rule initiative – perhaps if we all took part in such an action the ‘powers-that-be’ would understand the degree to which shopfloor workers are subsidising their business. It’s not unusual for individuals to work tens of hours extra every week. Multiply this across the entire business, and I suspect John Fry could be in for a shock.
One last thing, despite all these extra hours, there’s still not enough time to do the job properly. Advertising phones go unanswered, new ‘Style’ magazines are discovered in their 1,000s undelivered because there’s no-one left to organise distribution, circulation figures are compiled by one guy in Leeds for the whole of England and little better than useless and newspapers go out riddled with mistakes undermining readers’ confidence in products.
I fear JP is falling apart around our ears and we have to make John Fry wake up to that fact – even if it means taking action that a few years ago would have been unthinkable.

Gloop (08/04/2010 11:20:44)
I’m sure management are quaking in their boots at the prospect of another ‘work to rule’.
The first ‘work to rule’ at the Gazette collapsed when some of these ‘angry’ union members happily worked beyond their hours, privately hoping managers would look kindly on them as individuals when the redundancies were announced.

Pedant’s revolt (08/04/2010 11:33:59)
There are no winners – only losers – when workforces feel so angry and bitter that they let their hearts rule their heads and go on strike.
JP’s national management, however, has built up such an appalling legacy over the last few years that it has given the group chapel all the ammunition it needs to call a national dispute.
JP’s top dogs need to start giving some meaningful answers to the group chapel’s pay, Atex and staffing concerns – and soon – otherwise the ‘unthinkable’ will indeed happen.

H Briggs (08/04/2010 12:55:06)
Some excellent points from Straighttalking. What a shame it took a comment on here to bring all this up. Surely this is something the union could be doing, rather than just trotting out its own cliched quotes parrot fashion all of the time. If the union is to have any worth in this day and age it has to show management a better way to do things, rather than just dashing off for a quick headline on HTFP

richard meredith (08/04/2010 13:23:12)
Has anyone done their homework on the nuts and bolts of the ATEX system? I ask this because in the mid-90s, and then as a publisher, I was approached by this outfit, or someone similar, who were pitching an advertising management system that was basically an all-singing,all-dancing record-keeping and reminder program for ad reps with integrated content and production links. Also as i recall it, we hastily threw out the idea after the APEX man told us how easy it would be for our ad reps to screen up what editorial were producing with the thought that maybe it could give them some tasty ad leads. ‘Nuff said!