'Thousands' sign Johnston Press Yorks strike petition

Thousands of readers of Johnston Press titles in South Yorkshire have signed a petition in support of the company's journalists on strike in the region.

The NUJ was unable to confirm the number of signatures currently on the petition, which will be handed in to the company tomorrow, but said that it was in the thousands.

Signatures for the petition were collected at three picket lines in the region, as well as at union meetings during the strike.

NUJ Northern and Midlands assistant organiser Lawrence Shaw said that "very few people had declined to sign it".

"The many thousands of signatures on the petition are just fraction of those in the community who are upset about the changes," he told Journalism.co.uk.

"If we had been collecting signatures at every newsagent we would have had many more. This petition isn't representative of the number of people upset about this, but the numbers are still very good."

Staff from the South Yorkshire Times, Doncaster Free Press, Selby Times and Epworth Bells have been on indefinite strike since 15 July in protest over job cuts and office closures.
 
Three editorial posts have been lost at the South Yorkshire Times, with the remaining reporters now based in Doncaster and the newspaper coming under the editorship of Doncaster Free Press chief Graeme Huston.

South Yorkshire Times editor Jim Oldfield was made redundant during the ongoing strike. Oldfield, who will appeal against his redundancy, won praise from the National Union of Journalists last month after taking the decision to report editorial job cuts on the front page of the South Yorkshire Times.
 
NUJ organiser Chris Morley said: "It's wonderful that so many people have chosen to back our members' campaign against what is effectively the death of their newspaper. It was brilliant to see how much support we have had from readers - at times people were literally queuing up to sign the petition.
 
"Under Jim Oldfield's editorship the South Yorkshire Times became one of the most vital, courageous and popular local weeklies in the country - it is heartbreaking to see such an inspiring era threatened in this way."

Johnston Press was unavailable for comment.

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