Jings crivens, help ma boab!

As if things weren't bad enough for us beleagured union officials, DC Thomson have turned over a new leaf. Unfortunately what we see is not good, their new side is worse than their old side, in fact it is a nightmare scenario for all their staff.

Not satisfied with closing their print plant in Guthrie Street, Dundee with the loss of around 350 jobs, they are MODERNISING editorial departments across all titles. In recent years we have seen many newspapers and brodcasters seek "efficiencies" through new technology and new contractual terms and now DC Thomsons are jumping on the bandwagon. However they have to remember it is a very big jump from the 19th to the 21st century.

Only last year I was singing their praises (admittedly through gritted teeth) at the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, who were looking into the Scottish newspaper crisis. Labour's Jim McGovern and SNP MP Pete Wishart asked me what DCT were like as employers, compared to everyone else. Reluctantly I had to say they were different, while not exactly known for being union friendly, I concurred that we didn't have many problems with them, unlike everyone else over the last 20 years.

However all good things come to an end and even before the arrival of much-beloved Donald Martin as new editor of the Sunday Post, we were finding ourselves camped out in Dundee.

I like Dundee, the weather is usually good. For example the very first time I (or any other NUJ official-ever) was called on to represent a member in a disciplinary/capability type of meeting, there was a blizzard across the central belt. Glasgow was snow-bound, the road between Cumbernauld and Falkirk blocked by two-jackknifed lorries and the diversion was through the icy backroads of Fife. However-there was no way I was going to miss this historic occasion and despite one or two mis-haps and strandings on the ice and snow, I arrived (in a sunny Dundee, with no snow) about an hour late.

Yes you guessed it- they had started without me. Nevertheless I was there, allowed into the building no bother and ushered into an office for the remainder of the hearing. Since that day I have spent a lot of time in and around Dundee, meeting members and potential members who are facing up to imposed changes in their terms and conditions. Longer hours, pay cuts or salary freezes, disgraceful changes in their sick pay entitlement and other new policies designed to make savings and boost profits.

No-one I have spoken to is surprised at the move to modernise, but most are shocked and angry at the way they are being forced through. Many loyal staff members are disgusted at the Thomson family standing back and letting the new management run ragged over their rights. There is a threat to jobs too with redundancies planned as further restructuring takes place to suit the master plan. The NUJ has been recruiting and will be seeking recognition eventually. In the meantime we will continue to offer advice and support individual members in challenging the cuts.

That's our job and we are doing it across the industry, the inclusion of DCThomson into the fray just means we have another badly advised employer to deal with and our industrial, legal and political strategy is once again having to be employed full-time to protect our members and those vulnerable workers in our industry.