Journalists at Trinity Mirror-owned Coventry Newspapers held a
two-day strike on Thursday and Friday over pay, with more strikes
threatened this week at two other regional newspaper groups.
At a
meeting on Wednesday, management stuck to its three per cent offer but
said it would backdate the rise to April rather than May. If NUJ
members do not accept the offer a further threeday strike is threatened
from 20 July.
During Thursday’s stoppage some journalists
suggested helping out to cover news of the London bombings but after a
vote decided not to.
Mother-of-chapel Barbara Goulden said: “We
took the decision that PA would cover it and deadlines were looming.
Had it been in Coventry then we would have joined in reporting.”
Meanwhile,
NUJ members at Newsquest’s South London Guardian group have voted in
favour of strike action over pay. The journalists are rejecting a pay
offer of three per cent and are asking for six per cent with London
weighting.
And journalists at the Johnston’s Sheffield Newspapers
have also voted in favour of industrial action over claimed staff
shortages following nonreplacement of staff.
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