All 237 NUJ members at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail took part in a 24-hour strike at the papers on Saturday, according to the union.
Trinity Mirror employees at the Glasgow office walked out at midnight on Friday. A work to rule has been in effect since their return.
The dispute, which could result in a further stoppage on 10 April, follows owner Trinity Mirror’s plans to cut 70 out of 278 editorial jobs.
NUJ organiser for Scotland Paul Holleran said the level of support for the strike was unprecedented:
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‘None of the journalists went in. Normally you get a handful of people who do, but we’re not aware of any working journalists who went in.”
Beyond the picket line, according to the NUJ it was left to the editor, deputy editor and one ex-editor to put together the Sunday Mail. Material was prepared in advance and in some cases taken from the Mirror titles in London, the NUJ said.
Holleran said: ‘Readers will really have noticed a difference. The quality of some of the pages left a lot to be desired.’
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He also predicted that the ongoing refusal to work beyond contracted hours would have a ‘severe impact’on the Daily Record.
According to a spokesman for The Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd, the papers have ‘a well-developed contingency plan.’
The spokesman said: ‘We have the resource to produce all of our newspapers to the same high standard our readers and advertisers expect…Sunday’s paper was 88 pages as planned.”
Talks are ongoing with the NUJ about reducing staff numbers by voluntary means, but management of the Scottish titles have said they cannot rule out compulsory redundancies.
The spokesman defended the proposed changes as ‘a technology-led response to the current economic environment and the rapidly changing media landscape”.
He said: ‘We fully appreciate that this is difficult for all involved, but it is absolutely vital that we take action now to safeguard the future of our newspapers.”
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