The National Union of Journalists has cut its planned industrial action at The Independent tomorrow to just one hour in the hope it will encourage management at the paper to re-open talks over compulsory job losses.
Having voted to strike, union members will now be called to a mandatory chapel meeting tomorrow afternoon lasting for one, rather than the planned two, hours. The strike was due to take place from 4-6pm.
The NUJ has called on Independent management “to re-engage in meaningful talks” and restart a consultation process over 27 planned redundancies.
NUJ deputy secretary Barry Fitzpatrick said: “Members want to see genuine engagement with the legitimate issues they are raising, over job cuts, quality and workloads. Far from jeopardising the future of the titles, resolving these questions is key to their on-going survival and ability to adapt to change. Management should recognise and value the loyalty of their workforce to the titles and rather than issuing threats about the future, work with them to achieve changes by agreement.”
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The union said that staff were not consulted over the paper’s plans when they were announced last month and were angered by an email from Independent editor Amol Rajan urging them not to vote for strike action.
However, managing director Andrew Mullins and content director Chris Blackhurst last month told journalists at the paper that the print edition of The Independent could be under threat if the planned cuts did not take place.
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