Journalists on all-out strike

LOW-PAID journalists at the Coventry Evening Telegraph, part of the
Trinity Mirror Group, are now on indefinite strike over low pay. (See
the last issue of the socialist). They have now been out for over two
weeks.

Rob Windsor

All the picket lines are lively and well-attended with passers-by
being lobbied about the situation. The dispute highlights low pay in a
city that once led the way in fighting for decent pay with the securing
of the Coventry toolroom rate. With the decline of manufacturing all
that is unravelling.

This dispute comes at the same time as the Single Status dispute with
council staff facing huge pay cuts. As one Labour councillor said some
time ago: "We don’t have to compete with the car industry
anymore." This is obviously not lost on the Evening Telegraph
bosses.

Journalists had a lively march through the city centre with around 30
on it. It is now vital that this dispute links with similar disputes in
Sheffield and London and that it spreads to ensure that Coventry workers
are not isolated. It is also vital that workers at the printing presses
where these papers are printed are lobbied.

The all-out decision was a bold step and needs to be sustained and
built on. Coventry strikers, assisted by the Socialist Party, are now
starting to raise cash through other trade unions and collections at
workplaces and across the city. With solidarity from other workers, not
only can these predominantly young workers win, they can also be an
example to other workers fighting low pay across Coventry and beyond.