UK: "Day of action" to follow NUJ summit

Posted by Rosemary D'Amour on December 2, 2008 at 11:59 AM

Following Saturday's crisis summit to discuss the plight of regional papers, the National Union of Journalists will be staging a coordinated "day of action" against pay freezes and rising job cuts.

The emergency summit meeting, following one of the worst weeks for job cuts in the industry, led union and newspaper representatives to agree to a series of moves in response to the job crisis.

The "day of action" will include "coordinating industrial action against compulsory redundancies" and organizing a union-wide "series of protests and activities against job cuts and pay freezes around key company and industry events" in addition to lobbying Parliament, according to Hold the Front Page.

NUJ will also work to "expose instances of shareholder and management greed" and build community-based "Stand up for Journalism" campaigns. The union is also working to gain the support of editors.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear justified the fight, calling it far from obstreperous. He criticized the shareholders and publishers for "recklessness," saying "the very people who plunged the industry into this crisis by demanding such excessive profits believe the solution is to axe journalists and freeze pay."

Local newspapers, Dear said, remain "profitable" both in print and online, and the decisions by directors have put the regional press' ability to deliver quality content and strong local coverage "in jeopardy."

Source: Hold the Front Page