Journalists at two South Coast dailies are to hold a further two days of strike action next week.
Staff at the Southern Daily Echo and The Argus, Brighton – both owned by Newsquest – will stage a 48-hour stoppage on Tuesday and Wednesday, 7-8 December.
Echo journalists are taking action over the company’s ongoing pay freeze, while Argus staff are protesting over job losses arising from the centralisation of the paper’s subbing operation in Southampton.
The move follows earlier two-day stoppages at both titles earlier this month.
Members of the National Union of Journalists at the Southampton-based Daily Echo previously went on strike for two days on 9-10 November over the pay dispute.
Two further days of action, which were set to take place on 16-17 November, were cancelled by the union after management announced it was prepared to hold talks with the union.
However Echo editor Ian Murray made clear ahead of the meeting, which took place yesterday, that the pay freeze would not be up for discussion.
Now the union has given the company formal notice of two days of industrial action after the meeting ended with no offer being made to staff.
David Brine, father of the Southern Daily Echo chapel, said: “Strike action is always a last resort but we feel they have been left with no alternative.
“We accepted a pay freeze for the first year but the healthy profit made by the company on the back of our members’ work has blown a hole in their argument that the wage freeze should remain. We should share in the fruits of our labours.”
The planned two-day stoppage at The Argus follows an earlier 48-hour strike on 18-19 November.
Six sub-editors’ jobs are being lost as a result of the planned move of production operations to Southampton.
No-one from Newsquest has yet responded to requests for a comment on the stoppages.
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Newsquest management shows the arrogance of the dictator. It doesn’t feel the need to clothe its avarice and contempt for the workforce by pretending to poverty or offering real negotiations. Best of luck to the striking NUJ members. You deserve, and will receive, I’m sure, huge support from the rest of the union. Now be prepared for the supine whimperings of the non union lobby!
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Very best of luck to the strikers. It’s been said many times before but it deserves to be said again – Newsquest’s senior management is a disgrace.
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You may well find ‘brothers and sisters’ from Bournemouth or elsewhere going in to Southampton next week to cover during the two-day strike. Ho hum…
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Here’s an idea – we’re working in an industry that’s fighting to survive, with ad revenues still falling, and fewer & fewer people buying our papers, and now there’s a 20-30% increase in paper prices coming – so let’s go on strike to cause even more problems. You never know, one day we might wake up and find that the papers we say we’re sick of working for don’t exist any more. Job done!
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