Some 95% of participating Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members have voted in favour of strike action over compulsory Reach redundancies, the impact of artificial intelligence in the newsroom and rota changes.
Not all Mirror NUJ journalists took part in the ballot: of the 83 members entitled to vote, 44 (53%) cast votes in the ballot. Some 42 voting members said ‘yes’ to striking, while two members voted against action.
In September, Reach revealed more than 600 journalist across its national and regional titles were at risk of redundancy as it planned a net cut of 186 people in a major editorial reorganisation.
The Mirror is one of the titles “worst affected by the cuts”, according to the NUJ.
The cuts are part of plans to create a video and live news network, with content to go into a hub to be used by brands including the Mirror. Some 135 new roles are to be created in the new network, and 321 are set to be cut.
Press Gazette understands that after a six-week consultation by Reach, the final redundancy figures are broadly in line with those originally proposed, and many new hires have already been appointed.
[Read more: Reach to ‘radically reorganise’ editorial structure with one live news team]
The NUJ has previously suggested AI-assisted journalism will play a role in replacing journalists cut.
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said: “Our members at the Mirror have delivered a clear message to Reach chiefs in their campaign to protect colleagues and to protect quality journalism.
“We are pressing the company to resolve the issues our members are raising. We do not want to see Reach plugging the gap from these cuts by increasing the burden on remaining staff and using artificial intelligence to centralise and duplicate content. The company insists this is not the case – but our members do not accept this.
“AI cannot substitute for the talent and expertise of trained writers and editors. The Mirror is a distinctive voice in UK journalism, and these cuts erode media plurality and do a disservice to its readers and loyal staff.”
NUJ members have yet to decide what form, if any, the strike action will take.
A Reach spokesperson said: “We remain committed to working closely with our teams and our union representatives to avoid action and to ensure that we continue to serve our audiences with trusted, quality content, against a rapidly changing landscape.
“In the meantime, it is essential that we continue to make progress on our priorities and we have begun to confirm appointments for our new roles which will support our ambitions in video and digital subscriptions as well as our new Live News Network.
“We will also continue to share regular updates on how we are using AI, not just for our editorial teams but across all of our functions, as we will all begin to use AI more in our daily work lives.”
Across Reach’s Scottish titles, with a turnout of 48%, 72% voted for strike action while 92% voted for action short of a strike. The turnout was ruled too low for results to be considered valid (with 54 of 113 members returning their ballot). The NUJ said this was due to a short timetable with the vote only running for two weeks and delays in the postal system with some ballots taking ten days to arrive.
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