Newsroom
Big vote to ballot over cuts at Independent
Journalists at the Independent in London have voted by a massive majority to ballot for industrial action over job cuts.
At an NUJ chapel meeting today – attended by more than 130 members and with some voting by proxy – more than 90 per cent backed the call for a ballot.
It is feared that up to 35 journalists on the Independent and Independent on Sunday face compulsory redundancy.
The company proposed last November that 90 jobs should go –around sixty of them in editorial.
Fifty journalists have applied for voluntary redundancy – but the company has accepted only 34 of those applications
Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary, was at today’s chapel meeting.
He said: “Independent journalists feel there is no plan or vision about how to take the papers and websites forward with a much smaller staff.
“People who want to go will be forced to stay, and staff wishing to stay will be forced to leave. This is a recipe for widespread demoralisation and makes no business sense.
"Those staff remaining have many concerns, including the effect on the quality of their journalism, and health and safety.”
At the Independent’s sister titles in Dublin journalists have been concerned by plans to replace a pay rise with a share issue.
The action at the Independent is part of an NUJ-wide campaign against media cutbacks.
4 February 2009
Share
