Record and Mail staff to strike

About 70 jobs are to be cut at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail

Journalists at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail have voted overwhelmingly for two days of strike action.

Staff will walk out on Saturday 4 April and Friday 10 April. There is also to be a continuous work-to-rule.

The company is planning to shed 70 jobs, after merging the production of the Record and Mail titles.

Owners Trinity Mirror said the restructuring would make the titles better equipped for a "dramatically different media economy".

A plan to cut 70 out of 276 editorial staff was announced at the end of February.

The strike ballot was held by the National Union of Journalists.

From 237 ballot papers issued, 200 were returned.

About 85% of those who voted backed strike action.

The first 24-hour strike is to take place from midnight next Friday, affecting the production of the Sunday Mail as well as coverage of Saturday football matches for Monday's Daily Record.

Its Scottish organiser Paul Holleran said the management would not compromise.

Trinity Mirror said the current economic climate had been a factor in the reorganisation, under which the Daily Record and Sunday Mail would operate as a single editorial team.

The Daily Record's circulation has dropped to about 336,000, allowing it to be overtaken by the Scottish Sun as Scotland's most-bought daily newspaper, according to official ABC figures.

The circulation of the Sunday Mail has also fallen in recent times to a current level of 416,169, but it has retained its position as the country's most popular Sunday newspaper.