Don't miss the last two paras.
Joe
+++
Mirror journalists to hold series of strikes after ballot vote
By Roy Greenslade/Guardian
Staff at Trinity Mirror's three national newspapers are to hold a series of two-hour strikes,
with the first set for Friday this week. The decision follows a ballot of members belonging to the British Association of Journalists in which 50 voted to strike and 33 voted against.
Strikes are also planned to take place over the following two weeks. The action follows the announcement by Trinity in June that 200 staff (140 full-time and 60 casuals) were to be made redundant.
I understand that Trinity's management will dock the pay of anyone who obeys the strike call, which may well exacerbate a tense situation within the three papers, the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People.
Many journalists have already accepted voluntary redundancy terms. Others have been required to leave. They include the head of news, Anthony Harwood, and six of the company's 10 photographers.
I can well understand their frustration and their anger. But three two-hour strikes between 5 and 7pm on successive Fridays are unlikely to have much practical effect on production. In truth, such token action will not hinder Trinity's determination to carry through its cuts.
But the company should be aware of the widespread sympathy for the plight of its flagship title. Though the Facebook page, Save the Daily Mirror, may not have attracted a vast army of signatories, its 1,772 members include many journalists who genuinely care about its fate.
In a sense, it is as if they are signing a memorial because the Mirror they mourn is already dead. They are remembering an era long past when the Mirror represented a quarter of the nation's people, if not more. They are also, in a sense, remembering the great days of printed newspapers, of a Fleet Street that can never return.
Trinity, its board, and its investors, may know about this. But they are in it for money, for the business that is journalism, not the journalism business. So the paper that campaigned vigorously from the 1940s onwards for a socialist alternative to rampant capitalism now finds itself, in part at least, as one of capitalism's victims.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/aug/16/trinity-mirror-tradeunions
Joe
+++
Mirror journalists to hold series of strikes after ballot vote
By Roy Greenslade/Guardian
Staff at Trinity Mirror's three national newspapers are to hold a series of two-hour strikes,
with the first set for Friday this week. The decision follows a ballot of members belonging to the British Association of Journalists in which 50 voted to strike and 33 voted against.
Strikes are also planned to take place over the following two weeks. The action follows the announcement by Trinity in June that 200 staff (140 full-time and 60 casuals) were to be made redundant.
I understand that Trinity's management will dock the pay of anyone who obeys the strike call, which may well exacerbate a tense situation within the three papers, the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People.
Many journalists have already accepted voluntary redundancy terms. Others have been required to leave. They include the head of news, Anthony Harwood, and six of the company's 10 photographers.
I can well understand their frustration and their anger. But three two-hour strikes between 5 and 7pm on successive Fridays are unlikely to have much practical effect on production. In truth, such token action will not hinder Trinity's determination to carry through its cuts.
But the company should be aware of the widespread sympathy for the plight of its flagship title. Though the Facebook page, Save the Daily Mirror, may not have attracted a vast army of signatories, its 1,772 members include many journalists who genuinely care about its fate.
In a sense, it is as if they are signing a memorial because the Mirror they mourn is already dead. They are remembering an era long past when the Mirror represented a quarter of the nation's people, if not more. They are also, in a sense, remembering the great days of printed newspapers, of a Fleet Street that can never return.
Trinity, its board, and its investors, may know about this. But they are in it for money, for the business that is journalism, not the journalism business. So the paper that campaigned vigorously from the 1940s onwards for a socialist alternative to rampant capitalism now finds itself, in part at least, as one of capitalism's victims.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/aug/16/trinity-mirror-tradeunions
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