Coventry says: "Ta!"

Letter (slightly pruned) from Brum and Coventry branch chairman Chris Youett:

Thank you for sending a cheque for £50 whcih I have paid into our hardship fund account. It is much appreciated.

To give you an update - Jeremy Dear was brought in for fresh talks following a conciliatory letter from Trinity Mirror's cheif Sly Baily who earned a mere £1.2m last year. Jeremy forced the management to concede what the chapel had been asking for all along: early implementation of the skills matrix (a grading structure members campaigned for for years). In return we have agreed to return to work while management is supposed to work with the Coventry Newspaper Chapel on assessing all our members.

We have made it clear that if management drags its feet the chapel reserves the right to start further industrial action. Morale is still high and this has been helped by letters of support, donations and emails to senior TM staff.

I was pleased to note fellow freelancers were offered bribes (er, loyalty bonuses) of £50 a day to cross our picket lines. Most told the management to stick their cheques. TM tried to hire freelances from as far away as Bristol and London to break the strike. This mostly failed. The effect was the cancelling of photographic jobs and titles were forced to rely on handout pics or stock snaps. Readers very quickly noticed this.

I know those who worked did not like coming in an hour earlier to get a reduced-contents paper out, despite free bacon butties. I expect to pick up new recruits from those who stayed inside over the coming weeks because they haven't got any extra money.