Newsquest Cumbria journalists will meet on council premises today to discuss their year-long pay claim after the company banned NUJ meetings at its HQ.
City Council leader Colin Glover agreed that the journalists could meet at the authority’s civic centre building. The chapel had lodged a 5% pay claim, claiming that Carlisle journalists had not had a pay rise for eight out of the last 12 years.
The firm’s senior management confirmed last week that it intends to continue this pay freeze. At the meeting, chapel members will be asked to consider their response to the company’s decision to continue with its pay freeze.
A spokesperson for chapel said: “The message our members are taking from this decision on pay is depressingly clear: Newsquest does not value its journalists in Cumbria.
“Any journalist who joins this company should expect a future of continuous pay erosion. In recent years, our journalists have taken on ever more responsibility for diminishing reward. The net result has been a steady and continuous loss of our most experienced local journalists.
“On this evidence, we can only conclude that Newsquest Cumbria in the long term is likely to be staffed primarily by transient, overworked, underpaid, journalists, who are either trainees or recently qualified.”
Newsquest bought CN Group in March 2018.
