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NUJ to re-ballot members at the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times following Newsquest legal threats

By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

August 7, 2013 | 3 min read

The NUJ will re-ballot members on industrial action at the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times on Monday after the union was forced to scrap an initial ballot in favour of a strike following legal threats.

Action: The NUJ will re-ballot members on Monday 12 August

Newsquest threatened to take action again the union over what the NUJ said were “minor technicalities” after a vote showed 86 per cent of members were in favour of striking and 96 per cent in favour of action short of a strike.

Paul Holleran, NUJ organiser in Scotland, said: “The re-ballot shows the unity of the chapel and the strength of feeling among our members.

“[Parent company] Gannett has a total revenue of £848m yet they want to keep on cutting jobs and make compulsory redundancies on what are nearly statutory terms.”

The union said Newsquest had refused to budge on compulsory redundancies, which it said could have been avoided if the company had offered redundancy terms of two weeks for every year over 20 years.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, added: “It seems that greedy managers in London are interfering in Glasgow as rivals jockey to replace the chief executive Paul Davidson before the end of the year.

“The Scottish job cuts are signed off by London with a total disregard for local readers, local journalists and the titles they produce.

“Decisions taken in London are gradually eroding the Newsquest Scottish titles.”

Plans to cut up to 20 jobs at the titles – focused mostly in production – were announced in June.

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