Thomson Reuters' journalists plan 48-hour strike

Journalists at Thompson Reuters are to stage a 48-hour strike – the first in more than 25 years – after being awarded a below the rate of inflation pay rise of 1.75 per cent.

The strike action, supported by 83 per cent of the NUJ members, will start at one minute past midnight on Thursday, February 9th and end at midnight on Friday, Feb 10th.

This action coincides with the release of Thomson Reuters earnings.

NUJ chapel officers, Mike Roddy and Helen Long said: “We tried very hard to reach a settlement with management but the company's refusal to improve its below-inflation offer of 1.75 per cent, which follows years of effective pay cuts, has compelled Thomson Reuters journalists to vote overwhelmingly for strike action for the first time in more than 25 years.

"Thomson Reuters must shoulder the responsibility for this dispute. The company ignored repeated warnings that members had reached a tipping point, after years of below inflation pay rises, combined with rising costs, that are pricing many members out of their jobs.

"Those with families who cannot afford to live in London are especially feeling the pain as they are forced to commute into the capital on the most expensive train lines in Europe. We hope management will now listen to its journalists and return to the table with a sensible offer to avert a costly strike.”

Barry Fitzpatrick, NUJ deputy general secretary, added: “This strike is about fairness. The management is proposing a below-inflation pay deal, while holding back money for a merit scheme. This is just not on. While our members struggle to make ends meet on their wages, the management should be putting all the money into an across the board pay increase.”

NUJ charities boost from Irish MoS 'grave robbing'

A marketing stunt by the Irish Mail on Sunday which led readers into believing it was a special edition of the defunct Sunday Tribune has led to its publisher, Associated Newspapers, agreeing to pay €15,000 to charities nominated by the NUJ.

Associated also faces a legal bill following a court case taken by National Consumer Agency, the Irish consumer watchdog, after it published a wraparound (top) last February bearing the title Sunday Tribune when the struggling paper was in receivership.

Noirin Hegarty, the editor of the Sunday Tribune at the time, accused the Irish Mail on Sunday of being "shameless" and "grave robbing".

Judge Conal Gibbon, in a reserved judgment at Dublin district court, found that the Irish Mail on Sunday had deceived or misled customers. However, he found the company not guilty of having intended to deceive or mislead under the Consumer Protection Act 2007. He said it was “clear how a person could believe it was the Sunday Tribune”.

The National Consumer Agency alleged that the Mail on Sunday had breached the Consumer Protection Act with the four-page wraparound covering its issue of February 6th last year. It alleged that that the paper had broken the Act by deliberately deceiving or misleading the consumer and by promoting its own product in a way that would deceive or mislead the consumer.

The Mail on Sunday argued it was a legitimate marketing tactic.

The company was prosecuted by the National Consumer Agency following a series of complaints from members of the public, including Séamus Dooley, Irish Secretary of the NUJ. Five consumers gave evidence of buying the special editions thinking they were the Tribune.

Judge Gibbons accepted a plea by counsel for Associated Newspapers that the Probation Act should be applied. The court ruled that the Mail on Sunday should pay €15,000 to charities chosen by the NUJ and applied the Probation of Offenders Act. This means that a conviction will not now be recorded. Associated Newspapers has also been ordered to meet the prosecution’s costs and the expenses of witnesses – totalling €25,000 – within four weeks.

Séamus Dooley, who passed on the cheques from Associated Newspaper to the NUJ, said he was tricked into buying the Mail on Sunday twice, after buying it and the fake Sunday Tribune, which turned out to be a copy of the Mail. He described the Irish Mail on Sunday’s edition as “crass” and said it was as if the paper was “dancing on the graves of my members facing redundancies”.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “This ruling is of little consolation to the Sunday Tribune workers but it is nevertheless welcome. The Mail showed total disregard for the Sunday Tribune workers and acted in an insensitive manner.”

Two NUJ charities, NUJ Extra and the George Viner Memorial Fund, have each received €7,500, following the judge’s ruling.

Times' cycling safety campaign highlights plight of paper's reporter still not conscious after accident

The Times' impressive front page campaign to make cities safe for cyclists highlights the case of one of its own news reporters - Mary Bowers - who was injured in a cycling accident on the way to work last November and is still not conscious.

Kaya Burgess, a friend and colleague of Bowers, writes in The Times today: "The reality with any major issue is that it only truly touches you when it comes close to home. However regularly you may cycle on Britain’s city streets and however aware you are of the risks of doing so, it is not until you have seen one of your closest friends and colleagues stretchered off the tarmac from beneath the wheels of a lorry only yards from the office that the vulnerability of cyclists hits home.

"Mary Bowers is a news reporter at The Times. She joined the paper as a graduate trainee in September 2009, though her beaming smile and effusive personality were common sights around the office from previous roles as a researcher on the comment and foreign desks.

"With a passion for social affairs investigations and witty features, she has a writing style that is as distinctive as her sharp, quirky dress sense. She also has a remarkable singing voice, and it is an honour to have been one of those lucky enough to perform with her on several occasions in the folk clubs of London.

"Yet it is only by a hair’s breadth that we are still able to talk about Mary in the present tense. Her survival to this point, now almost three months since her accident in London at 9.30am on Friday, November 4, is down to the passers-by who stopped and called the emergency services.

"It is down to the paramedics who arrived on the scene within three minutes, to the fire crews who cut Mary and her mangled bike from beneath the wheels of the lorry, and to the doctors and nurses in the intensive care unit of one of the city’s busiest hospitals. But Mary cannot thank them herself. Not yet. Not for a long time. Possibly never. Because, though she is stable, Mary is still not conscious and remains in a trauma unit. Her broken legs, arm and pelvis are slowly healing, but other damage sustained during complications in her treatment, almost inevitable after so traumatic an injury, will be far harder to overcome, though she is making slow progress.

"There are also people Mary would not want to thank. There are the authorities who have neglected to ensure that junctions like those on The Highway in Wapping — or countless others where cyclists have been maimed and killed in Britain — are made safe for cars, lorries and cyclists to co-exist safely.

"Mary, a news reporter, would be first to ask why it is not mandatory for lorries driving on city streets to be fitted with sensors and mirrors to pick up cyclists in their blind spots. Or why training for cyclists and drivers on how to share the road responsibly is so poor. Or why some junctions are so dangerous that jumping a red light can actually be a safer option than lining up alongside HGVs at the lights like a racetrack starting grid. Or why London trails so far behind cities such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen in terms of the infrastructure and legislation to protect vulnerable cyclists and to help the drivers who are trying to avoid them."

• Readers are urged to pledge their support for The Times' make cities safe for cyclists campaign; show their support on Twitter with #cyclesafe; and write to their MPs.
• The campaign is outside The Times' paywall.
  

It's not just the NUJ unhappy at Sly Bailey's pay

The Financial Times reports that Trinity Mirror is facing renewed pressure to rein in the pay of its chief executive Sly Bailey (pictured) from some of the biggest shareholders in the media group.

It says the shareholders will set out their mounting unhappiness over the pay of one of the UK’s highest-profile media executives when Trinity Mirror’s incoming chairman David Grigson holds a series of meetings with key investors.

The FT says: "Shareholders believe Ms Bailey’s pay is above her peers and that she must rebase her remuneration to recognise Trinity Mirror was now a much smaller business than when she joined nine years ago."

One top 10 shareholder said the size of Ms Bailey’s pay was “just not tenable," reports the FT. “It is out of kilter with the group’s performance and current size. It is premature to say we are demanding her head but we are looking at it all very keenly,” the shareholder said.

A second top ten shareholder said: “Sly hasn’t got a great many supporters now – not when she has lost so much and is so well paid.” A third added they planned to raise the issue of pay when meeting Mr Grigson, a former finance director at Reuters.

• Yesterday, the NUJ criticised Bailey's pay after it was announced 75 jobs are to go at the Mirror and People. (See post below)

NUJ anger at axing of 75 jobs at Mirror and People

The NUJ has condemned the axing of 75 jobs at Trinity Mirror’s national newspaper titles – the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People.

In a shock announcement this afternoon staff across all three titles were summoned to a meeting to be told of the cuts, which will see the centralisation of subbing and production across all titles and the pooling of features and news.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “These cuts represent a depressingly familiar tale at Trinity Mirror. Rather than invest in quality products – and continue to build on recent growth in circulation on the Sunday titles – the strategy is to cut jobs and compromise quality journalism. Where is the strategy for growth and the future? Journalists are paying with their jobs for the corporate mismanagement and incompetence of Sly Bailey and her senior executives – yet still they continue to award themselves lavish pay.”

The NUJ says the cuts comes after the total directors’ pay and pensions bill for Trinity Mirror last year was £3.9million - £1.3million of which was cash bonuses. Of that, Sly Bailey's package of pay and pensions was a staggering £1.7m, including a cash bonus of £660k.

It also points out the share price for Trinity Mirror today is 48p whereas 12 months ago it was 90p.

The NUJ says it will be organising meetings of members to discuss the union’s response.

FT story on Sunday Sun was Fawlty, says Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch was not impressed by the Financial Times' story that the launch of a Sunday version of the Sun has been put on hold following the arrests of some of the paper's journalists - and tweeted his displeasure, comparing The Pink 'Un to a well known comedy.

Speculation is that a Sun on Sunday is planned for a launch at the end of April.

World Economic Forum dominates news agenda

The World Economic Forum in Davos dominated the news for the week ending Sunday 29 January, according to journalisted.

The Forum in Davos, addressed by David Cameron and other global leaders, generated 441 articles; Spurs manager Harry Redknapp on trial accused of cheating the public revenue, 198 articles; RBS chief executive Stephen Hester under pressure to give up his bonus, 192 articles; the government loses a vote on a benefits cap, 138 articles; the Leveson Inquiry continues, with witnesses from the BBC, ITN, social networks and pressure groups, 130 articles; and Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich campaign for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the Florida primary, 113 articles.

Covered Little, according to journalisted, Tibetans are shot dead in clashes with Chinese forces, 14 articles; four stand for Plaid Cymru leadership, 6 articles; former Scottish Socialist leader, Tommy Sheridan, is released from prison amid claims of a 'gagging order', 5 articles; and Khaled Meshaal, exiled Hamas political leader, opts not to seek re-election, 3 articles.