Strikes averted at Irish Johnston Press titles as publisher backs down on job cuts

Strikes at a series of Johnston Press titles in the Republic of Ireland have been averted after the publisher reportedly backed down over most of its proposed job cuts and improved redundancy plans for the rest.

Last week, Journalism.co.uk reported that the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) had served Johnston Press with notice of strike action at a series of titles in Ireland, in response to the proposed job losses following the introduction of the Atex editorial production system.

According to a report from the NUJ, its members at eight newspapers including the Limerick Leader, the Leinster Leader, the Leinster Express, the Offaly Express and the Clonmel Nationalist voted "overwhelmingly" in favour of a one day strike, which was planned to take place today.

But Journalism.co.uk has now been told that the action was called off, or at least deferred, at all the titles after most of the jobs were saved.

At the Leinster Leader staff also agreed not to strike today following an agreement from the publisher to engage with the chapel on any issues in staffing levels that occur following the introduction of Atex, Irish organiser Nicola Coleman told Journalism.co.uk.

"In that week Johnston Press reassessed their position at many of the titles and the jobs were saved at almost all of them," she said.

"In the cases where jobs could not be saved the redundancy packages were improved."

Coleman said the union had postponed the action to see if the publisher would "make good on those assurances", she added.

"For the chapels it was not only a fight to protect jobs but a struggle to protect the integrity of their profession and the newspapers."

Johnston Press has not yet responded to a request for comment.

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