A pound of flesh...

It must be the silly season - a journalist from Associated Newspapers took me out for lunch on expenses the other day!

But back to more important issues - last night Johnston Press reps from more than 15 centres backed plans for a day of action and a group-wide campaign against job cuts and under-resourcing of newsrooms. It is an important step towards achieving a co-ordinated fight back against the endless cost-cutting major publishers are engaged in.

It is vital we now get local communities involved in the battle to ensure local journalists have the resources necessary to deliver quality news across all platforms. We heard ludicrous stories of cost-cutting from our reps including in one centre only using one plastic tie-up instead of two to hold bundles of newspapers together, no photographic jobs after 5.30pm as if the news only happens between 9.30am and 5.30pm.

If these companies were losing money you could understand it more but they're not - they're just making less profit. After all the years of fat they've grown greedy and are demanding their pound of flesh - and that to them means axing editorail jobs - a false economy.

Aside from Johnston Press I've had numerous other meetings including meeting with one of our BBC reps to talk about union organising at TV centre, meeting with Bectu to discuss the next stage of our joint building share project and meeting with the union's auditors.