OXFORD SHOWS ITS SUPPORT FOR YORK NEWSQUEST STRIKERSDonations of £450 were sent by branch members in support of the courageous stand by members of the Newsquest York chapel who have been striking over pay. The contributions of £400 from the branch and £50 from the Oxford Mail chapel were to the strike fund set up by journalists on the daily title The Press and weekly Gazette and Herald, who came out for a week in a fight for better pay after rejecting an offer of 3% plus 0.5% in discretionary payments.
Their sacrifice - and defiance - is particularly significant as not only have most Newsquest chapels, including the Oxford Mail, accepted the 3% offer, but it is against the background of an inflationary spiral caused by the downturn.
TALKS AT ACAS
The chapel followed up its five days of strike with mandatory chapel meetings in work time. The management, realising the strength of the chapel and the growing support it was receiving, agreed to go to ACAS. This was after initially rejecting the idea.
Talks are continuing but the chapel has had to face the opening up of a second front after the Newsquest York management announced eight redundancies plus a vacancy which is not to be filled.
Sam Southgate, the joint FoC, said: "The chapel is determined to resist compulsory redundancies. It's not as if Newsquest York is not making money. They made a profit of £4.3 million last year."
Job cuts in editorial have also been announced at other Newsquest titles - 20 at the Glasgow Herald and ten at the Northern Echo. More jobs are going among non-editorial staff. Eight such jobs have gone at the Oxford Mail.
Like the rest of the industry Newsquest is being hit by the slump in advertising revenue, which is biting into profits.
AW 2008-07-03
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