The National Union of Journalists is expected to hold last-ditch talks today with Trinity Mirror senior management in a bid to reduce job losses at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail.
The final push comes as the publisher prepares to send letters to individual members of staff selected for compulsory redundancy.
However, NUJ Scottish organiser, Paul Holleran, said the union remained “hopeful” it can negotiate a last-minute drop in the number of jobs set to be scrapped.
Last month, it was announced that 90 journalism posts had been earmarked for redundancy at the two Trinity Mirror titles, with content from sister papers, the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, used to fill gaps in content.
It has emerged 46 applications for voluntary redundancy were received earlier this month.
And following ongoing negotiations, it is now understood 14 posts are still set to be axed imminently after a temporary reprieve was granted in certain areas to allow the publisher to assess future developments at News International amid growing speculation a Sunday version of The Scottish Sun is in the pipeline.
Holleran told allmediascotland: “We’ve got a meeting to look at final figures. We’re still negotiating right up to the last minutes to save jobs.
“Fourteen are at risk but we’re still hopeful we can get it down to less than that.”
He continued: “We’ve said now is the time to expand and go on the offensive and you [Trinity Mirror] will need more bodies to do that.
“The danger that they have is, if they power ahead with compulsory redundancies, there is going to be so much ill-feeling in the workforce that people won’t want to work extra to take News International on.
“People will in effect work to rule if the company is not careful.”
As reported yesterday on allmediascotland, union members have launched an online campaign with a dedicated Facebook page and blog established to urge a re-think.
