Express journalists consider work-to-rule

Jessica Hodgson
guardian.co.uk, Friday March 16 2001 16.25 GMT

Journalists at the Express have today decided to prepare a ballot for industrial action following the brutal job cuts announced yesterday.

They have been instructed by the union to examine their contracts this weekend to examine the possibility of a work-to-rule as an initial protest against the 145 redundancies being planned by the newspaper group.

An estimated 200 journalists gathered at a packed NUJ meeting in the Express canteen at 3pm today to discuss what action to take.

The atmosphere was calm but determined and peppered with jokes at the expense of proprietor Richard Desmond and his management team.

Staff came to the brink of instructing the NUJ to go ahead with a ballot for a strike action.

Instead NUJ national newspaper organiser Jeremy Dear told journalists to "go away and look at their contracts and see about the possibility of a work-to-rule."

A motion was also proposed about the possibility of journalists refusing to work on other titles.

However, this was not put to the vote because it was approaching press deadlines and journalists were going back to their desks.

The proceedings were not all doom and gloom, however.

Mr Dear raised a hollow laugh when he claimed that the editorial board assembled by Richard Desmond shortly after he took over had never actually convened.

Mr Desmond put the board together to head off fears that the editorial quality of the paper would plunge under his stewardship.

Journalists also wondered if jobs could be saved if they come up with alternative means of saving money.

One journalists shot up with one novel suggestion, asking: "Why don't the get rid of Vanessa Feltz?". Feltz is paid an estimated £100,000 a year for her new column in the OK! magazine weekly supplement in the Express.