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24 July 2002 Support for the strike at the Chronicle & Journal
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18 August 2002 Wishing you every success in your Campaign and action for fair pay - |
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9 August 2002 The NUJ Left has monitored with interest the strength of the strike at the Chronicle & Journal and the fact that the employers appear not to have responded to solid single days of action. Being aware that two further days of strike are planned for 9 and 10 August we wish to express practical solidarity by sending a donation of £50 to your hardship fund. |
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9 August 2002 As Chair of the Northern Region of NATFHE, the University and College Lecturers' Union, I would like to send on behalf of all our members a fraternal and sororal message of support to all of your members involved in your current industrial action. |
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9 August 2002 On behalf of Northumberland College Branch of NATFHE, the University and College Lecturers' Union, please accept this message of support for your industrial action. We wish you every success and hope it culminates in a fair and acceptable resolution. |
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9 August 2002 Tyne & Wear County Association of Trades sends all NUJ members in the region heartfelt support and good wishes for a successful outcome to your action. |
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9 August 2002 On behalf of the Netherlands Branch of the NUJ our greetings and solidarity with you in your struggle with the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal as you fight for a fair wage. We have written to Piers Morgan of the Daily Mirror urging him to see the paper covers the strike. |
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9 August 2002 I am writing to send you the support of the Fire Brigades Union and I hope you will convey this to all the members involved in the action. |
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9 August 2002 Best wishes from the Independent NUJ chapel to striking journalists at the Chronicle and Journal. |
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9 August 2002 NUJ members at the Bradford Newsquest titles were with you in spirit. Glad it was another good day - delighted to hear support for the action is still solid. You're an inspiration - keep it going. |
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9 August 2002 Good luck in your fight. |
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9 August 2002 BBC World Service Branch send their very strong support for your action - we went through it a few or more years ago, and it paid off. |
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9 August 2002 I write to send my best wishes in your strike for better pay. I became a journalist 12 years ago and pay since then has, at best, kept pace with the Retail Prices Index. Other people's wages, of course, have increased by far more - by an annual 4.3 per cent in last 12 months. It is a gap that has widened in each of my 12 years and is now totally unacceptable. I was one of the GMWN strikers in April. You know the real rises we won were large, but the headline figure remained 2.5 per cent. So good luck in your own attempts. |
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9 August 2002 On behalf of the South-east Region Fire Brigades Union I send you fraternal greetings and support in your struggle for a decent pay rise, we wish you every success. |
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9 August 2002 I used to work for the Belfast Telegraph so I know all about miserable employers. Keep up the struggle - yours in solidarity, |
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9 August 2002 Overworked, undervalued and underpaid sounds all to familiar when describing British workers. |
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9 August 2002 Brothers and sisters I send to you the support of Fire Brigade union members in Merseyside and Cheshire. |
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24 July 2002 Just wanted to say good luck with your action. I'm co-ordinating the Pay Campaign for Cambridgeshire County Council workers at present and I'm heartened to see workers elsewhere speaking out and taking action for a fair deal. We had a solid Local Government workers' strike last week here in Cambridgeshire, and indeed across the country. In the face of stubborn refusal to budge from our employers, we are now planning further action on the 14th of August and we're determined to fight on until we're made a reasonable offer. Best of luck with your strike and I hope you achieve a decent increase. |
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24 July 2002 Just wanted to say good luck with the strike action. It's admirable to see people sticking up for themselves. |
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24 July 2002 Here's wishing you all the best for you strikes this coming Thursday and Thursday week. The fight against low pay among journalists on newspapers such as your own has greatly inspired members across the country, and particularly in London's magazine sector. The sector, like every other, was badly damaged by the years of derecognition. The employers have taken the opportunity to keep down pay on an array of titles, while salaries for the upper echelons have sharply increased. Things are now, however, beginning to change, with chapels being re-established, recognition being won and preparations for our first pay dispute in the sector for more than 10 years. With fights like your own to guide us, we are confident we can begin to win back many, if not all, the conditions and relative pay levels which we enjoyed before derecognition. On a more practical level, we shall be encouraging members to make collections in their workplaces, and will be putting together a model collection sheet for this purpose. Once again, all the best. |
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24 July 2002 Dear Fellow Trade Union members, Please convey warmest solidarity greetings from the Executive Committee of the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT) to all your members taking strike action on 25th July & 1st August. I will not be able to attend your picket line on the 25th as our RMT Conductor members are on strike in the north of England in a long-running dispute with Arriva Trains Northern on that day - and we have organised a mass picket at Manchester Piccadilly Station to coincide with the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. |
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24 July 2002 Just a quick note to offer my support for your pay dispute - low pay on provincial papers is a scandal, and I am sure you will have the same success as the many other journalists who have stood up to newspaper managements and demanded a fair wage. |
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24 July 2002 We sincerely hope you are successful in your totally justified action for a reasonable salary for all. Good luck! |
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24 July 2002 I heard today your chapel voted to strike for better pay. Good on you! It's a big step to take and one that doesn't come easy to union members. Take it from me that your chapel has made the right decision. Pay in provincial journalism is a scandal. We have some of the brightest, most dedicated workers in the country and our employers just milk us for every last drop. All over Britain, workers are realising that they've never had it so good, they being the bosses and shareholders of our companies. While media companies have made huge profits and bonuses over the last decade, journalists have seen their pay slip to the point many with families now qualify for social security benefits to top up their meagre salaries. The Newsquest Bradford chapel was one of the first to strike over our pay claim this year. We didn't choose to strike at the drop at the hat: our members were so demoralised and outraged at the state of our working conditions that they knew the only option was to strike. And it worked. Our trainees received double figure increases and everyone ended up better off than if they'd accepted managers' pay offers prior to the strike. What else will you achieve by striking? Well, the warm glow of knowing that the years of having to accept all the crap that's thrown at you are coming to an end; a great feeling of camaraderie, manning picket lines and having your readers come up to you and offer their support, and the knowledge that journalists, politicians, fellow trade unionists and just ordinary members of the public are on your side, because you and I know you have right on your side. There will be scare tactics by managers, there will be intimidation, there will be colleagues who don't feel they can support you. That's life. But you will come through your dispute with your heads held high, knowing you have started to turn the tide. Keep your cool, don't be to hard on the scabs, they're just a bit less brave than you. When it's all over, they'll thank you, in their own understated way, and your offices will be better places to work. Above all, enjoy yourselves! It was the bleak midwinter when we struck. You can top up your suntans in that lovely Tyneside sunshine. Everyone in Bradford will be rooting for you. |
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24 July 2002 Just a quick note to put on record the support of your Trinity Mirror comrades at the Birmingham Post & Mail and to congratulate your Chapel for your determined stand to win better pay at Newcastle. We wish you well in the planned action for Thursday and hope that you successfully achieve your aims. This Chapel is 100 per cent behind your grievance and recognise the dispute as a vital contribution to achieving better terms and conditions within the group. Once again good luck and please let us know what your require from us to assist your efforts. |
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24 July 2002 Wishing you every success in your campaign and action for an improved offer. |
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24 July 2002 Just a note to wish you and your colleagues at Newcastle NUJ Branch all the best in your forthcoming industrial action. We, at Spalding, had to take five weeks on the pavement to get a halfway decent deal. We were successful in getting considerable increases for trainees and some senior staff (the majority of our 13-member chapel) and huge pay increases throughout our company Welland Valley Newspapers, neighbouring Anglia Regional Newspapers and the Peterborough Evening Telegraph (all owned by Johnston Press). If a small chapel like ours can gain success then a branch like yours should do so too. Good luck. Any advice you need I'd gladly provide it. I shall be having an emergency chapel meeting next week to decide a donation to your strike fund. We still have considerable bills to meet (largely pay) and will be in a position to consider a donation to your branch on Thursday. In the meantime, I and my husband would be delighted to join you on the picket line on August 1 (if your strike continues until then). Please keep me informed as we will need directions! |
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24 July 2002 Good Luck with the pay campaign. Todays and tomorrows journalists will thank you for it! If your resolve starts to weaken, just think of the figures on the bosses pay packets compared to yours... |
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24 July 2002 Good luck in your dispute. I am waiting for officer approval to send your account £250.00. Let me know if you need more and Ill see what the Branch can do. Heres to a swift victory. |
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24 July 2002 Brothers and sisters, It is your obligation to strike when all other avenues have been exhausted. A fair day's pay of a fair day's work is a just cause. More power to your elbow |
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24 July 2002 Good luck, just sending my support. |
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24 July 2002 Good luck with the dispute! |
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24 July 2002 Give our greetings of solidarity from UNISON NORTH REGION. Your struggle is our struggle will spread the words re your dispute. Thank your members for giving an accurate report of our Local government dispute on Wednesday. Will try and get to your picket lines - but am a bit tied up with our current action! |
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24 July 2002 Just a note to express my support for the stand you are taking in defence of your right to a decent living. The offer on the table is paltry and the current starting salary at your workplace is truly disgraceful. I unhesitatingly offer my support and thanks for your actions as a chapel and as individuals. Many thanks and good luck, |
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24 July 2002 In solidarity |
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24 July 2002 Just a preliminary message of support between meetings from London Freelance Branch members and committee - plus a personal note because I did my apprenticeship on the Chronicle and Journal in 1969-72 and it happened I was on strike within a week of starting my journalistic career. That one worked ie shifted the negotiatory logjam, and I hope yours does too. |
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24 July 2002 Be assured of my personal support and that of my chapel (Informa Telephone House, London EC2) as well as London Magazine Branch, from which you will have heard through others. I will organise financial help from my chapel, and get back to you on that. As a former chief reporter on a weekly regional paper (Surrey Advertiser), and district reporter in Ireland, I am more than aware of low pay conditions on the regionals. Something which I have tried to highlight in and outside the NUJ. And still in the trade press low pay is a burning issue, which our chapel and branch are campaigning to address. I think the NUJ is finally waken up to the fact that the majority of its members are far removed from the pay levels a number of individuals in the national media enjoy. It is time for the profession to speak up for those in the profession on lower pay like nurses and teachers do. |
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24 July 2002 On behalf of the Northern Region of the TUC I send a message of support and solidarity in your struggle for a decent pay rise. I think the general rate of pay that journalists endure will come as a major shock to the public. Your claim is clearly a just and fair claim, especially taking into account the massive profits that are being made by the Trinity Group. More workers are showing employers that we are not prepared to accept poverty pay. There is a growing confidence in the trade union movement, which your action further demonstrates. I can assure you that the TUC will do everything we can to support you. My very best wishes for success in your action |
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24 July 2002 All the best and good luck, hope to see you Thursday |
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24 July 2002 I am emailing you to offer our support for you during this period when you are forced to take industrial action. We are aware that the pay issue is an ongoing problem for the NUJ with your members being disgracefully undervalued up and down the country. Although we are not in your region we felt that the least we could do was to send a message of support for your members. We will also be sending you a cheque for £25 to your strike funds. I hope that you are successful in your dispute and if we can be of any more support please let me know. |
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24 July 2002 Best of luck for Thursday. It's fantastic that you're taking a stand in this way and not letting them keep you down. What they are offering is ridiculous and your response will teach them that. If even McDonalds, hardly noted for its interest in staff wellbeing, is paying more than your employer you know there's something wrong, and good on you all for taking action to stop it. Low pay is a morale-sapping scourge which has huge implications for people's lives, and it does this industry no credit. |
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24 July 2002 As joint FoC of the Incomes Data Services chapel, I would like to let you all know that you have our full support in your actions. We have had a whip-round and the monies have been sent to the Newcastle branch of the NUJ. Good luck to you on the 25th and 1st - we hope your employers get the message sooner rather than later. |
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24 July 2002 Just saw a report of your strike action on the LabourNet UK website, and wanted to drop you a line to say well done and good luck. Media groups like Trinity Mirror take huge profits, yet remain unwilling to reward the employees who create those profits with decent pay and conditions. There are many of us out here who know your cause is just. Best wishes for successful action. |
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24 July 2002 To our striking colleagues at Newcastle: Good luck and best wishes from the members of amicus - MSF in the Northeast. A cheque for £50 will be reaching you soon. Please feel free to contact us again if you need to. |
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24 July 2002 Please accept solidarity greetings for your 1-day strikes from NATFHE at Northumbria University and from Newcastle upon Tyne TUC (who would welcome your affiliation!) |
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24 July 2002 Good luck with the strike from the almost non-existent NUJ chapel at the Grantham Journal. |
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24 July 2002 It's really interesting to see journalists at the forefront of the Summer of Discontent - and predictably boring that this is going almost entirely unreported by other journalists. Here's to winning decent pay and challenging the bosses' line on pesky uppity workers. |
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30 July 2002 Please accept our support in your struggle. Once again we see that shareholders are more important for the employers than their workforce. We wish you all the best. Unite and fight! I will be raising your fight at our next branch meeting regards PS: we go on strike in September! |
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30 July 2002 Comrades - I have today e-mailed the Daily Mirror as requested and I hope that this small token will assist you in your struggle for a fair wage. |
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30 July 2002 A quick note from the reporters on the Wolverhampton Express & Star to wish you good luck in what you are doing. It's truly inspirational stuff to read about your stand which we completely sympathise with. I was one of the 107 who struck for nine months at the Northern Echo in the late 70s. Your predecessors helped us then, so good luck and I hope your dispute doesn't last that long. |
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30 July 2002 Just a note to say congratulations to the chapel on this week's great turnout for your strike over low pay. Good luck for next week, too - all the best, |
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30 July 2002 Attention Piers Morgan -Dear Piers, I am writing to alert you to a story which I think would interest Mirror readers - especially now you are regularly covering issues related to social justice. There was a strike in Newcastle on Thursday by a group of workers who earn thousands of pounds below the average wage. Their employers make an operating profit of more than £ 13 million on a turnover of £ 52 million (last figures available), but the workers have been offered a pay rise of 2 percent which is less than inflation. Graduate currently start on trainees £ 11,000 - £ 8,000 per annum less than the average graduate starting rate quoted in your own paper a couple of weeks ago. The company concerned is the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal and the workers involved are journalists. I know that you believe challenging journalism is vital in a democracy, and you will realise that this is only possible when journalists are secure enough in their jobs to work without fear - giving this dispute an extra dimension. There is another strike on August 1 - so there is still plenty of time for the Mirror to cover the dispute. I am sure the National Union of Journalists will give you more information. The company is owned by Trinity Mirror, based in Canary Wharf in London. |
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30 July 2002 Just a word of support for your action. The ongoing saga of low pay in journalism has lasted long enough. But with actions like yours springing up, I think the various media bosses across the UK are now beginning to worry about their respective trust funds and extravagent lunch expenses in case they have to start paying their core workers proper wages again... Roll on the Summer of Discontent |
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30 July 2002 Good luck in your strike |
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30 July 2002 Best wishes from Central London branch in your struggle for fair pay, which we look forward to seeing splashed across a spread of the socially-conscious Mirror! You're part of the biggest and so far most successful campaign the NUJ has run in years, and you can be assured we will be doing all we can to help you secure a just settlement. I believe 250 notes is winging its way to you. Please don't hesitate to ask for any other help. |
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30 July 2002 Hello, I've just read about the strike in Newcastle and I am e mailing to show my support to the NUJ members there. I have just been made redundant at TEAMtalk.com in Leeds, but the NUJ were great. The company had announced that there would be loads of redundancies and many of us joined the NUJ, most of us had never been in a union before. After a 96 per cent vote for strike action the management offered us a £ 900 redundancy payment, they had previously offered us nothing except the minumum £ 250 for every year's service if you have been there more than two years. The whole thing made me realise it's important to be in a union and so I'm just emailing to say you have my wholehearted support for your action. |
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30 July 2002 Well done, keep going! |
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30 July 2002 On behalf of everyone in the York branch of the NUJ can I pass on a message of support for you and your striking colleagues. Up and down the country journalists are fighting against the scourge of low pay and demanding that in this historic period of local newspaper profits and consolidation they ought to be getting their fair share. As a former newspaper reporter and Trinity employee driven from the industry by low pay and appalling conditions which severely lowered my hourly rate (an issue we all perhaps forget) I applaud your stand. It is clear from your dispute that even in the country's most prestigious and award-winning newspapers journalists are suffering from chronic low pay and poor conditions. Good luck and take succour from the successes of our colleagues at Bradford, Wakefield and Spalding. |
These messages of support were received before the
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