By Hamish Mackay
Industrial action by journalists at Trinity Mirror’s two Scottish
newspapers – the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail – has almost
certainly been averted.
It
has emerged that local management at the two Glasgow-based tabloids has
secured sufficient volunteers to meet its demands for a net loss of 12
editorial posts without any compulsory redundancies.
And the
controversial plan to close the Daily Record¹s Aberdeen office has been
scrapped which means a reprieve for its two award-winning staffmen
there – Bob Dow and Charlie Gall.
Early this month the two paper’s NUJ chapels had jointly voted 146-0 to
ballot for industrial action on these two issues.
It is understood that, after the current lease runs out on the Aberdeen
office from which the newspaper has been operating for the last 53 years, Dow and Gall may have to work from home.
And
also, according to media industry sources, although no reporter job cut
is now expected in Edinburgh, Trinity Mirror will push ahead with plans
to move the editorial operation to the South Gyle shopping centre – on
the west edge of the city – from its prestigious Castle Street base
which is reported to have an annual rent of £1m.
Daily Record picture editor Stuart Nicol is among the editorial executives opting for voluntary redundancy.
It also understood that the Daily Record¹s high-profile columnist Bob
Shields will leave, along with political editor Paul Sinclair who is
believed
to be seeking a parliamentary seat as a Labour candidate at either
Westminster or Holyrood, while other reports are tipping him for an
appointment as a special adviser to Labour Cabinet minister, Douglas
Alexander, who represents a Scottish constituency at Westminster.
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