By Sarah Lagan
NUJ journalists have voted overwhelmingly in
favour of strike action against job cuts at Northcliffe’s Bristol
Evening Post and Western Daily Press.
The union said 61 of the 82
journalists who voted in an official ballot yesterday were in favour of
a strike while 21 voted against.
A final meeting is due tomorrow to decide whether to go ahead with the strike.
The
union’s decision followed a consultative meeting with Northcliffe about
the possible 36 job losses at the titles. Last week Northcliffe
announced around 20 jobs could go from editorial on top of a reported 7
non replacements. More redundancies are expected to be announced in the
features, business and admin departments.
Journalists are due to hold a fourth day of action later today.
Western
Daily Press FoC Paul Breeden said: “Journalists at the two papers see
strike action as a very last resort. But we are at a loss at how to get
our views across to management in any other way.
“It became clear
last week that the consultation process is a sham because the company
is not prepared to negotiate on the number of job losses – something
that the DTI’s legal guidelines say it must do.”
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