Fighting the low pay scandal

About 50 predominantly young journalists at the Coventry Evening Telegraph, part of the Trinity Mirror Group, are striking over low pay.

Stephen Hallmark, a member of the NUJ Coventry Evening Telegraph chapel (sub-branch), explains the background to the dispute for The Socialist.

Knowing that the wage you earn in relation to the profits your company produces is pathetic is one thing. But the question is how to change it.

The figures speak for themselves. Trinity Mirror last year had profits in excess of £250 million, whereas a trainee reporter will start on £11,500.

Adverts are carried in the Evening Telegraph encouraging would-be reporters to sign up to a Trinity Mirror journalism training course, a package that costs £4,000. It fails to explain how a newly qualified trainee would be able to pay that debt off as well as afford to rent a property in Coventry, and eat.

Our protest was sparked by this year's pay offer, a 2.75% rise - below the rate of inflation. The company's justification for the miserly increase was that the figure represented inflation on a basket of goods - excluding house prices. Presumably they expect us to live either with our parents, or in a tent.

It was my first time on a picket line, and it was an experience I shall never forget.

The usual colourful antics such as placards, banners, flags and "honk your horn if you support us" signs were combined with one of our photographers clad in a monkey suit handing out peanuts and explaining to bemused passers-by that if you pay us peanuts you get monkeys. The police were less impressed when the monkey began cooking sausages on a disposable barbeque on the main drag into the city centre, but he was allowed to feed the picket line before extinguishing the fire.

But for me the most amazing thing about the strike was how it brought the chapel together, and how it created a special spirit between us.

The older hands reminisced about protracted action in the 1970s. I got to talk to people from different departments who I'd never really met before, and those of us making our striking debut learnt the true value of being a member of a vocal trade union. Each of us sacrificed money to make a stand and to ram home the message that trainees deserve more.

I am privileged to work at a newspaper with many passionate and committed trade unionists.

We believe that local journalism is a wonderful vocation. But we also believe the time has long since passed whereby the management is able to take advantage of the fact that we love the job, and therefore can be fobbed off with pitifully poor pay. And how can a newspaper be truly representative if the working classes are priced out from getting the work experience and training necessary to get the job?

We have a young newsroom, and being present in the NUJ chapel meetings in the run-up to the first day's strike action was an invigorating and emotional experience.

We were all committed to taking a stand. We were not swayed by two derisory offers - each of £100 - which management bizarrely anticipated would satisfy us, and we were not scared by a string of badly worded and threatening letters which informed us of the ramifications of our actions. Quite the reverse, the management's clumsy approach strengthened our resolve.

It was more sobering to learn that the management hadn't budged, and initially I felt dispirited, but the strength of feeling at the next chapel meeting took most of us by surprise. We had thrown down the gauntlet, and were not ready to fold.

The fact that management had made 'loyalty' £50 payments to the few who had broken the strike - 43 members of our chapel refused to cross - again served to convince us to take more action, in the form of mandatory meetings. And when we were told that attending a mandatory meeting would result in us not being paid for the (whole) day, we refused to crumble and called a two-day mandatory meeting!

After four days of action during a three-week period, the management agreed to come to the table, and pledged to introduce a 'skills matrix' next May. And backdate it by one month.

They had previously agreed to implement the 'skills matrix' in 2003, and the offer again served only to strengthen our resolve.

So now we are on strike for five days, and we are committed to making our stand.

The workers are out on 25 and 26 July, then on 28-30 July. They are receiving much public support and welcome further solidarity and help with the strike fund. They are also asking people to protest to the paper's editor Alan Kirby, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Corporation Street, Coventry CV1 1FP or email alan_Kirby@mrn.co.uk or Trinity Mirror Chief Exec, Sly Bailey at sly.bailey@trinitymirror.com

Messages of support can be texted to chapel rep James McCarthy on 07888 753710.

To build the campaign against low pay, the socialist demands:

An £8 an hour minimum wage, with no exemptions.
A maximum 35-hour week without loss of pay.

Only £2 a day

JOURNALISTS ON the South London Guardian were also on strike this week.

A three-day strike against low pay began on 25 July, with pickets at the Croydon and Morden offices. Pickets and supporters also leaflet shopping centres in Balham, Tooting and Wimbledon.

Newsquest, the paper's owners were forced to move a skeleton operation to old offices in Cheam but this too was picketed. Newsquest, who make £200,000 profit every day, then threatened legal action to the NUJ members fighting for a living wage - their latest pay offer was worth £2 a day.

Commons cleaners strike

"Animals get treated better than us"

HISTORY WAS made on 20 July as the first ever industrial strike took place at the Houses of Parliament. Cleaners who work for a private contractor were striking against low pay and poor conditions.

Luke Aylward and Ken Smith

The cleaners, who are mostly members of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), picketed six entrances to Parliament, as well as nearby MPs' offices.

The cleaners are currently on less than £5 an hour, get just 12 days holidays and have no company pension. Around 170 workers who were on the picket line called for a wage of £6.70 an hour, more holiday and a proper company pension.

Sean Roake, one of the cleaners and a TGWU member told the socialist: "These cleaners are coming in 4am, 5am and 6am to clean toilets and they are getting less than £5 an hour. They work in poor conditions, have poor holidays and they want justice.

"This [Houses of Parliament] is a symbol of democracy and we are all getting treated really badly here.

"It's not fair the way the cleaners are treated when you compare it to privileges that MPs have. Animals get treated better than us, especially when you see our working conditions. Where we have to eat is like a dungeon and is very bad. For a building of this stature, one of the greatest buildings in the world, it's astonishing.

"A fair number of people have come out on strike today - about 70-80 people on all different picket lines. We're all sticking together on this and hopefully we'll get what we want. And if we don't, we'll have to review what we're going to do in the future."

Another worker said: "We voted unanimously for strike action. It helps that we have the union behind us."

"We've been fighting against these conditions for five, maybe six months. Yet, until now, the MPs and the company have done nothing about it. If it wasn't for the union, it wouldn't have got off the ground", said a cleaner, who was picketing at a nearby office.

Around a third of all MPs support the workers, though to what extent is unknown. The cleaners who are being exploited work for Mitie Cleaners, who also employ contract workers at Canary Wharf. Cleaners who work there are also considering strike action against their working conditions.

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