Friday 21 May 2010

Newsquest staff to ballot over transfer plan


Ten journalists in Stourbridge are to ballot on industrial action over plans by Newsquest to transfer three staff to another news centre at Worcester, 30 miles away, the NUJ said today.
The NUJ claims that the management plan threatens journalists jobs and will also lower the quality of the titles produced at Stourbridge - the Stourbridge News, Halesowen News, Dudley News, Kidderminster Shuttle, Bromsgrove Advertiser and Redditch Advertiser.
NUJ organiser Chris Morley said: "The loss of experienced senior journalists from this centre would also weaken the support available to more junior staff. Cuts have left huge workloads on journalists and the proposals as they stand will make this worse. A reasonable, alternative strategy has been put forward by the union that would avoid the worst effects of the company’s proposals but I am not convinced that management will listen to logical arguments alone.
"Newsquest plans put both journalists and journalism at risk at Stourbridge, and our members have drawn a line in the sand to say it is not acceptable."

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