Scarborough and Sheffield vote for strike

Journalists at Johnston Press titles in Scarborough and Sheffield have voted for strike action as industrial unrest spreads across the group's newspapers over management efforts to impose the ATEX content management system, the NUJ reports today.

NUJ northern and midlands organiser Chris Morley said: “Decisive votes by our members in Scarborough and Sheffield are an indication of feeling throughout the Johnston group about the effect that the short-sighted company policy of forcing through ATEX is having on journalists’ jobs and working conditions, as well as the damage it is doing to the quality of the papers.

“Johnston Group now faces a ballot on industrial action across the group, which can only increase the likelihood of serious industrial strife and bitterness.

“The company must realise that a moratorium on its headlong rush to introduce ATEX, with all the destruction it has created, is now essential. That way, we can talk with management about the mistakes that are being made and how to put them right.

"The alternative is widespread industrial action for which we are fully prepared, but which will be a response to management intransigence.”