The NUJ in the newsTalks today to avert a further four-day strike in Leeds failed after management rejected out of hand the proposals put forward by NUJ reps.
The Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post joint chapel got together after the meeting and agreed their next move. This will include a four-day stoppage from Thursday to follow last week’s massively-supported action.
The chapel at the York Press has gone into a mandatory meeting to discuss plans to cut four journalists’ jobs, the NUJ website is reporting.
This is the same Newsquest chapel that staged a fantastic strike over pay last year, and it has already faced redundancies.
A video of the fourth day of the Yorkshire Post strike records the high level of support the journalists enjoy from the city’s politicians.
Councillor Keith Wakefield, leader of the Labour group of Leeds City Council, praises the journalists on the papers, saying they have done an excellent job over the years he has been connected with the council.
The Koninglijke Vlaamse Schouwburg theatre in Belgium has hosted a protest concert in support of quality journalism at a major Flemish-language daily paper.
The newspaper, De Morgen, faces losing one in four of its editorial staff, a move which is likely to kill its ability to deliver reportage of any quality, the NUJ Brussels branch website says.
On day three of the Yorkshire Post strike the quality of the papers were really starting to suffer.
Joint FoC Pete Lazenby says, in an interview on a video from the picket line, that the chapel had no illusions that management would manage to get the papers out.
Day two of the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post strike proved to be as well supported as the first with thousands of cars, lorries and buses honking their horns, and supporters visiting the picket line with chocolates and other treats.
Addressing the strikers, many of whom are young workers taking industrial action for the first time, NUJ national executive member for the north east of England and NUJ Left activist Adam Christie said: “This, we think, is the biggest regional newspaper strike in the UK for more than 20 years.
Journalists in Ireland are demonstrating tomorrow against the government’s handling of the economic crisis.
NUJ members are uniting with trade unionists from across Ireland under the slogan ‘There is a better, fairer way’ to campaign for employment rights, pay, and job protection.
“I was on the demo on the picket line. The mood was high spirited, buoyed up by the incredible support from passers by, cars, taxis, buses all hooting and people waving.
“‘Old timers’ of previous strikes were stunned by the level of support from the community.
As Miles so eloquently explains on his comment on the previous post, comrades in Yorkshire are striking against job cuts.
The latest on the first day of their four-day stoppage is on the NUJ website, and there’s a good video report of the action on the BBC website that includes an interview with FoC Pete Lazenby.
Our public meeting on media ownership held last night at the wonderful London Welsh centre has received some very welcome coverage today.
But an interesting thing has happened. And it serves to prove why a discussion on ownership and control of the media – and therefore control of the message – is so important for us.