Newsquest: U.K. workers at York marshal walkout

Unionized newsroom employees at The Press and the Gazette & Herald staged a 12-hour walkout yesterday starting at noon, to protest plans by Gannett's 17-daily Newsquest unit to eliminate seven of 59 editorial jobs at the York newspapers, a labor group says.

"It was the latest in a series of mandatory meetings held by the chapel in recent weeks, but the first to last more than an hour,'' the National Union of Journalists says. "It is believed to have caused major disruption to both the daily title, the Press, and its weekly sister paper, the Gazette & Herald, which prints on Tuesdays."

The NUJ renewed its call for guarantees that Newsquest will not force through compulsory job losses at the papers. "Joint Fathers of Chapel, Tony Kelly and Gavin Aitchison, said the decision to stay out all afternoon yesterday followed the release, by managing editor Steve Hughes, of a skills matrix, proposed for use in the event of compulsory layoffs,'' the union said in a statement.

Kelly and Aitchison said: "The Press and Gazette & Herald have suffered horrific cuts in recent years. The papers have been mismanaged and mistreated, and further cuts will only serve to further hinder our ability to serve our readers in York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire."

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