The National Union of Newspaper Workers dealt a heavy blow to their journalist colleagues in The Sun by choosing "neither to participate nor support" the picket being held to protest against the massive retrenchment exercise carried out by the newspaper early this month.

A source told malaysiakini that an internal circular distributed yesterday signed by NUNW general-secretary R Chandrasekaran stating that the union had decided to refrain from taking to the streets and holding candlelight vigils to support the journalists' picket.

The decision to hold back their support was made after meetings with the daily's management.

The meetings apparently convinced NUNW union leaders that the company was indeed facing financial difficulty.

NUNW represents 100-odd production workers, who are mostly involved in printing and circulation of the daily, while journalists in The Sun are represented by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

The support from the daily's production staff is crucial and would have added impact to the protests initiated by journalists, said a former journalist who declined to be named.

He said that the retrenchment could have been avoided had the NUNW worked hand in glove with the journalists.

"Where's union solidarity?" lamented the source.

However, some of the newspaper's production workers have expressed disappointment with their union's position which they said was made without consultation. They stressed that they were willing to join the picket with the sacked staff.

"We were not given permission to picket by our HQ (headquarters)," said a staff from the production floor.

At a loss

The newspaper workers union wants The Sun to continue providing jobs for employees, despite earlier retrenchments which many believed key NUJ members in The Sun were singled out for punishment.

As at yesterday, 43 journalists and editorial staff were given their marching orders, the latest being veteran journalist and now ex-deputy editor of the business desk, Bob Teoh.

Staff from the editorial department said financial difficulty is a "lame excuse" from management.

A source said NUJ representatives had met with the management yesterday and the latter "sang the same song".

Executive director Frankie Tay Thiam Siew had said that the company could close down and the remaining employees would end up getting nothing.

The sacked staff had earlier expressed concern that the company may go into receivership to avoid paying their entitlements as promised in their termination letter.

Termination letters handed over to the retrenched staff stated that those affected would be entitled for salary up to their last working day, fixed allowances calculated up to the last working day, a one-month's salary for the absence of a proper notice and retrenchment benefits under the collective agreement.

None of these have been paid out to the 40-odd axed staff.

Tay had also apparently said that the daily's owner, Berjaya group chairman Vincent Tan, was angry with the picketers.

A miffed staff is reported to have told Tay not to treat them like they "never went to school".

The meeting then abruptly ended.

An irate staff from the editorial floor who could hide his dismay with NUNW said, "what are they afraid of, even pregnant journalists are carrying placards".

Morale in the embattled daily has been rock bottom, and many staff are of the opinion that the quality of daily will deteriorate with the indiscriminate sackings.

Broken promise

Employees and retrenched staff have taken to the streets since last month demanding the reinstatement of four of their suspended colleagues and the payment of the promised two-month bonus.

The company had earlier given written notice to each employee informing them they would receive the bonus payments, which was to have been paid by late last month.

However, following the publication of the controversial Christmas Day article on the plot to kill the prime minister and his deputy, the bonus payment was shelved.

Two journalists who wrote the report and two editors who approved the controversial report were suspended indefinitely, prompting the remaining journalists at The Sun to go on a picket.

Journalists still working at the paper and those retrenched say that the Christmas day article and the subsequent sackings had been used by management to avoid paying their bonuses, which would have amounted to more than RM3 million.