A RELAUNCH of the Sunday Herald newspaper, scheduled for this weekend, is expected to be hugely disrupted by a two day walk-out of NUJ members, over the issue of compulsory redundancy at sister title, the Evening Times.
While a walk-out at the Evening Times, on Friday, has long been known about, the NUJ says the industrial action aimed at the Sunday Herald – scheduled for Friday and Saturday – was being kept quiet about in the hope that management might give cause for it to be called off.
But the NUJ says no such reason has been provided, even though the walk-out will coincide with a big weekend in the paper’s history, as it embarks on a new look which will involve folding the current business supplement into the main section and incorporating the Seven Days arts and TV supplement into a newly-designed magazine.
“It had been something we were keeping up our sleeve,” begins NUJ Scottish Organiser, Paul Holleran. “Although we had to give notice of the action last week, we were hoping a resolution could be found to allow us to call it off.”
So far, there have been two walk-outs at the Herald group of newspapers, over the issue of compulsory redundancy, as the group seeks budget cuts of up to three million pounds.
Indicative of what is becoming an increasingly fractious stand-off between management and the NUJ, on Friday, an union rep at the Evening Times, Gordon Thomson, was suspended, only to then be re-instated – as reported on yesterday’s Spike.
