National Union of Journalists' members at the Coventry Telegraph and Hinckley Times have voted in favour of strike action in a protest at staffing levels.
A ballot produced a 78% majority in favour of walkouts, while 96% approved of action short of a strike. Chapel members are due to meet today to decide exactly what they propose to do. One possible option would be to stage a protest on November 5 when the whole union is due to embark on its "Stand Up for Journalism" day of action.
The vote follows months of dispute between journalists and the owners, Trinity Mirror, over a policy of non-replacement and redundancies that has resulted, says the union, in general reporter numbers having fallen to just 11 for an area with a population of more than 800,000. Talks in August involving Acas failed to find a solution.
Chris Morley, the NUJ's northern organiser, said: "This is a very powerful message that the chapel is sending to management which they will ignore at their peril. This is the most graphic example yet of NUJ member being willing to stand up for their profession.
"They are fighting back for the sake of the newspapers they have pride in and want to succeed. They are setting a lead that many other journalists who are fed up with the way managements play fast and loose with the quality of their journalism will want to follow."
I have to say that it is unusual for trades unionists to strike in order to preserve, or improve, the quality of their product. So what do Trinity Mirror have to say? A spokesman said: "We have no comment to make on this matter."
