NUJ Left is backing today’s call by the chapel at the Johnston-owned Halifax Courier for a national strike to fight the cuts in local media.

The members in Yorkshire have written to general secretary Jeremy Dear, and their colleagues in the Johnston group chapel, to demand the union organises what would be the first national strike in provincial newspapers for 30 years.

The letter, Hold the Front Page is reporting, says: “Halifax – and no doubt others – feel there is only one solution. To quote the so-called good old days, one out, all out. It’s the only way to bring employers to their senses.

“We need you to organise this – even if it is just a day of action among Johnston Press titles.”

While we agree that the national union should support this call and co-ordinate collective action against the relentless wave of cuts sweeping our industry, we must be clear about what is involved.

For a national strike in the NUJ to be legal under the current restrictive, pro-employer trade union laws, it would require individual ballots to be held in hundreds of workplaces.

Lawful ballot mandates would provide workers with protection from dismissal for the first 12 weeks of action. They would also protect the union from having its funds seized by the courts.

But not only would the ballots be prohibitively expensive to carry out, it would require a monumental organisational task to ensure every single ballot was carried out to the letter of the law to prevent legal challenges by employers.

A national strike by holding individual ballots where none currently exist is a non-starter.

Where we have ballot mandates, we can use them. Where we don’t, which is the vast majority of chapels, we need co-ordinated collective industrial action taken without a ballot, organised by the grassroots and supported wholeheartedly by the national union.

Jeremy has previously said he would refuse to repudiate wildcat action by chapels, as the union is required to by law. This legislation is a direct attack on the right of organised workers to withdraw their labour and we applaud Jeremy’s stance.

We have to be up front with members and say they would be striking unlawfully and could be sacked for it.

But our industry is facing a sustained and co-ordinated attack - the like of which has not been seen since the mid-1980s – by irresponsible bosses whose only motive is profitability.

NUJ Left believes the time for us to play by the rules has long passed. We believe the time has come to stand together to fight these cuts and challenge the unjust anti-trade union laws.

The call from Halifax to defend our jobs and our industry with a national strike of provincial media is the right one. But it is for us all to answer it.

Chapels, group chapels and branches should discuss as a matter of urgency how to deliver a strike in their workplaces, groups and areas.

The pain and anger  is not in NUJ HQ; it is in our newsrooms in the towns and cities across the country.

Likewise, the means to fight back does not lie in NUJ HQ alone; it lies with our members across the country.

Only we have the power to take united action. We should do it, we should do it soon, and we should demand that the national union supports us.

Posted by NUJ Left