The Morning Star prides itself on being the only "socialist" English language daily in the world, yet this plucky little paper treats it's workers like shit. Unlike other papers of the Left, the staff is not sourced from the ranks of the party that controls it, the Morning Star copies the big papers by maintaining the boss-worker relationship. The Weekly Worker has commented on this strike earlier this year, now the ballots are in and the strike is on. Below is the statement by the National Union of Journalists. Victory to the Strikers! Down with Stalinist Bosses!
'They've voted 11 to three in a ballot for industrial action and last night called a one-day walk-out for Monday 23 February - with a week of strike action to follow if management refuses to compromise.
NUJ Father of Chapel Steve Mather said: "We're not going to take any more of our bosses' broken promises."
Two years ago, management at the socialist daily averted strike action by pledging to boost pay as soon as money was available.
But, after a £600,000 investment from an "anonymous consortium", staff have been told that none of it will go on their wages. NUJ members have roundly rejected an offer close to 2008 inflation - effectively a pay freeze - alongside a one-off four per cent bonus, because it does nothing to address the long term issue of low pay at the title.
Steve explained: "We don't need one-off bribes, we need a step towards decent pay.
"We all work hard to bring out a decent paper against all the odds, yet our bosses won't even pay us £19,000 after the biggest investment in our history."
NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear backed the Morning Star chapel, saying: "Our members feel forced into this action by a management that is refusing to pay its staff a fair rate for their work. They don’t want to go out on strike but if that’s what it takes to win fair pay then they are clear that is what they’ll do."
Deputy Father of Chapel Carl Worswick added: "It's time for management to put its money where its mouth is. We write about workers fighting for fair pay all the time - now it's our turn."
The paper's management committee, which includes several leading trade union figures, has already unilaterally imposed an offer of three per cent on the journalists. The imposition of a pay deal has only served to intensify the dispute.
The NUJ has today served notice on Morning Star management that its members will take strike action on Monday 23 February and from Sunday 1 March to Friday 6 March.'
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1 comments:
As fair as I know there is more than one english language daily in the world. There's at least 50 probably hundreds.
Also isn't true if you forgot the world 'socialist' or 'far-left' - the WRP still produce a daily paper (who knows how they manage it) called News Line.
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