Two chapels at Johnston Press have voted to strike over the introduction of a new content management system Atex.

Scarborough and Sheffield NUJ members at the company voted for strike action in protest against the way management has introduced Atex.

The votes came as NUJ chapels at Johnston Press are balloting for national action over Atex and the lack of serious negotiations over jobs,  increased workloads, and the creation of regional production hubs.

See stories on this site for more on the dispute

Journalists in Sheffield and Scarborough who work for Johnston Press are balloting for action over a new content management system that threatens jobs and standards in local journalism.

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Missed this the first time. But Newsnight’s Paul Mason blogs movingly about Contract Journal, the magazine where he started his journalistic career. Contract Journal was closed last November after more than a 100 years of printing.

A story that could be told about many magazines

The strategy of denying a platform to fascists will be one of the key issues discussed at the NUJ Left conference later this month.

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, will lead the debate on the subject brought again into focus following the BBC’s decision to invite BNP leader Nick Griffin onto Question Time.

The NUJ Left conference will debate our response to the far right and our industrial tactics

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Photo: Jonathan Warren

NUJ vice president Pete Murray says the Labour party has “lost its will to fight” and only united action from the unions and others can defend jobs and defeat the far right.

Speaking on behalf of the NUJ at the Jobs, Education, Peace rally in Brighton on Sunday, Pete contrasted the protesters out on the streets in the sunshine with those shut up inside the Labour party conference centre opposite.

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By Dave Crouch

More than 100 trade unionists packed into the London Welsh Centre on Thursday night to hear the NUJ’s general secretary Jeremy Dear and a host of leading union activists call for a powerful protest in Brighton next weekend at Labour party conference.

Fresh from the TUC in Liverpool, Jeremy spoke about the government’s lack of political will – unemployment can be beaten, but it means a change of priorities from the banks to working people, he said.

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As trade unionists met in London this evening to help build for the Jobs, Education, Peace demo at Labour party conference on Sunday 27 September, father of the NUJ chapel at Express Newspapers, Steve Usher, sent this message of support:

Surviving NUJ members at the Express titles are currently going through yet another redundancy exercise.

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There’s a reason why the Daily Mail has traditionally paid its staff relatively well – and it’s not because it’s a benevolent employer.

Reporters know that in working for the Mail you hand over a little piece of your soul when you file your copy.

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Branches and chapels will be urged to sign up to a campaign to put jobs and journalism at the top of the political and industrial agenda this autumn.

Activists met this evening to begin planning the NUJ’s involvement in what we hope will be a massive showing of union solidarity at the Labour party conference on 27 September.

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by Dave Crouch

We are living through the worst economic crisis for 60 years. No one has any idea how it will pan out or when it will end.

Unemployment is soaring. Yet where are the unions? We should be battering on the doors of parliament.

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