Journalists at the Swindon Advertiser have decided to take two days of strike action on Tuesday 2nd January and Wednesday 3rd January.
The strike is in response to low and unfair pay at the Old Town based title owned by Newsquest.
It is reported The National Union of Journalists has offered to meet the company today but we are still waiting for a response.
The Swindon NUJ chapel said: “The chapel hopes this dispute can be settled without a damaging strike taking place and is waiting to hear what management can offer, despite stonewalling representatives at three pay claim meetings, which began in November 2016, and ACAS-moderated talks. Members believe Newsquest Wiltshire and Oxfordshire is on course to make a £4m operating profit this year – by contrast a decent wage rise for all Swindon journalists, where poor pay is a growing problem in recruiting and retaining staff, would be measured in the tens of thousands of pounds.”
Laura Davison, NUJ national organiser, said: “Our members at Newsquest are taking a determined stand against poverty pay and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the injustice and inequality that sees colossal profits channelled out of the local centre at the expense of local journalism. The community will be shocked to learn just how few journalists there are at Newsquest in Swindon and just how little Newsquest values their professional skills. At a time when the company is also attempting to force through more job cuts and get remaining staff to take on extra work we salute the chapel in tabling this action to highlight what is happening.”
Since The Swindonian has been running we are happy to have had many a good working relationships with the journalists at The Swindon Advertiser and other Newsquest titles. We have seen Newsquest cut jobs at other local titles including Gloucestershire and Oxford and have seen some very good hard-working individuals leave.
It is not our place to tell our competitors what they should be doing but for all of the staff up at Victoria Road, good luck! We hope you get a fair pay offer for the hard work you put in!
