FOOTBALL match reports lacking a byline will have been the main break from normal service noticed by readers of yesterday’s Sunday Mail, hit by a 24-hour strike by members of the National Union of Journalists, that also affected production of Saturday’s Daily Record.
Instead of their usual reporters, readers were instead served agency copy by management who were required to put together the paper following a mass walkout of journalists, prompted by fears of compulsory redundancies.
Said the Scottish Organiser of the NUJ, Paul Holleran: “It was completely solid [the response to the mass walkout call]. The mood is one of having no option but to continue.
“You could tell the impact on the papers.”
The strike action was begun midnight on Friday night and is scheduled to be repeated this Friday.
In between, there is a work to rule. It follows a ballot of NUJ members at the Daily Record and sister title, the Sunday Mail, which is merging production in pursuit of savings.
Some 32 applicants for voluntary redundancy is well short of 70 posts earmarked by the publishers, Trinity Mirror, for the axe.
Amid fears that the gap will be filled by compulsory redundancies, a ballot of NUJ members produced an 85 per cent vote in favour of industrial action including strike action and a 95 per cent vote in favour of industrial action short of strike action.
