NUJ votes 'no confidence' in Sly Bailey

The NUJ's Trinity Mirror Group chapel has passed a motion of no confidence in the company's chief executive Sly Bailey in response to threats of further job cuts.

The NUJ motion condemns Bailey's endless cutting of staff which, the chapel concludes, "appears to be her one and only strategy to improve the company's finances".

The motion goes on: "There is precious little evidence of any long-term plan to address the decline in readership of the company's national, regional and local titles - just an obsession with increasing profits in the short term regardless of market conditions."

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: "This vote of no confidence shows the level of anger among staff at Trinity's threat to wield the axe again. Previous culls have resulted in not a single extra reader and have done nothing to build the long-term readership and stability of the papers.

"How can it be good business to cut editorial in favour of putting ever higher proportions of the company's wealth into the pockets of shareholders? How can it be good for readers to have fewer journalists covering fewer stories with less time to research, write and produce high quality national and local newspapers?

"Trinity's strategy is fundamentally flawed – staff lose, readers lose and the only winners are the shareholders and chief executive who reap short-term rewards from failure whilst jeopardising the long-term future of the papers.

"We are committed to campaigning actively to reverse this decline and end the disastrous short-termism which is causing such colossal damage to Trinity's titles".

The Motion

The Trinity Mirror NUJ Group Chapel wishes to put on record that its members have no confidence in the strategy of the company's chief executive Sly Bailey.

If Sly Bailey carries out her threat of 18 October to axe jobs it will be just the latest in a series of staff cuts experienced since she took charge. Sacking staff appears to be her one and only strategy to improve the company's finances.

There is precious little evidence of any long-term plan to address the decline in readership of the company's national, regional and local titles - just an obsession with increasing profits in the short term regardless of market conditions. Cutting jobs will not add a single extra reader, encourage a single new advertiser or improve the service we provide to local communities. It will only serve to jeopardise the long-term future of the papers.

The NUJ Group Chapel believes Sly Bailey's failed strategy has led to a disastrous decline in staff morale, a loss of readers and consequent fall in Trinity Mirror's share of key markets and a failure to provide adequate staffing levels or resources to maintain the high standard of editorial coverage of which we are proud.
Consequently we have no confidence in Sly Bailey as chief executive of Trinity Mirror.

The motion has been endorsed by the following NUJ Chapels:

Daily Record and Sunday Mail/The Glaswegian/Scottish Mirror

Mirror Group Newspapers

Scottish and Universal

Racing Post

Western Mail and Echo/Wales on Sunday

Newcastle Chronicle and Journal/Sunday Sun

Liverpool Daily Post and Echo/ Liverpool Weekly Newspaper Group

Coventry Newspapers

Birmingham Post and Mail/Sunday Mercury

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Middlesbrough Evening Gazette

North London and Herts Newspapers

Yellow Advertiser Group

Midland Weekly Media

South London Press

Trinity Mirror North Wales weeklies chapel

West London and Bucks