The National Union Journalists has failed in a bid to gain union recognition at Stoke-based daily newspaper The Sentinel.
The union held an official recognition ballot of the 96 journalists working on the paper. According to the NUJ, 72 were returned, with an equal split of 36 for and against union recognition – an insufficient number to force the company to recognise the union.
Assistant organiser for new media at the NUJ Jenny Lennox said: ‘It will be more difficult for journalists to take up issues without NUJ representation, but not impossible. We won at Leicester, but not at Stoke; we’re not giving up.”
Editor of the Northcliffe-owned Sentinel Mike Sassi said: ‘I genuinely believe that the vast majority of the staff would prefer to trust The Sentinel rather than any outside representative.
‘I’m sure that the company will prove worthy of the vote of confidence. Our employees trust in the company to be an honest, reasonable and sensitive employer. It was a clear vote.”
Employees in the unrecognised NUJ chapel still have the right to place pay claims and take industrial action without NUJ recognition. As the ballot was lost, the NUJ are legally barred from organising another ballot for three years.
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