Worst job lossses in union’s history
The last six months have probably been the worst for job losses in the NUJ’s history. Up to 2,000 jobs were ditched in the second half of 2008 as recession set in.
Chapels across the industry have worked hard to keep the totals as low as they can and to ensure that redundancies are always voluntary and with decent compensation.
Now comes the fightback as the union sets out to play its part in rebuilding the industry.
Journalists at the US-owned Newsquest group are suffering more than any from the job cuts that companies are imposing as their answer to the recession. Since the group bought the Herald group in Glasgow in 2003 it has sought successive reductions in staffing and ratcheted up the pressure on journalists to get the papers out. In December the NUJ organised a work-to-rule to combat another £2 million in cuts.
The tactic had worked well in 2007 when a £34 million cost-cutting programme was stopped by a carefully planned strategy with selective stoppages and a two-week work-to-rule that put managers under pressure.
ANDREA PEARSON recounts the success of the campaign, which could form a blueprint not just for other chapels but for Herald journalists themselves — since on December 4 managers upped the stakes by demanding another 40 job losses in Glasgow, with the whole 250-strong editorial workforce having to apply for 210 posts in a new multi-media newsroom.