Online only: Updated 01/09/22 and 09/09/22
27 September 2022: the Reach dispute is settled

Strikes at Reach plc - and watch out at National World in Scotland

JOURNALISTS at newspapers owned by Reach plc are striking, over a miserly three per pay offer. On 12 August 2022 the NUJ announced that 79 per cent of Reach staff balloted supported strike action, on a turnout of 70 per cent of 1093 members. London Freelance Branch urges members to support the strike.

Picket in Belfast 21/08/22

Belfast and District NUJ branch members show solidarity with Reach strikers at NUJ strike and picket line outside Belfast Live, Rosemary Street, Belfast on Wednesday 31 August 2022

Image ©

Chris Morley, NUJ Reach national coordinator, said: "The NUJ is ready and willing to achieve a negotiated settlement. But for that to happen, the company will need to understand that our members are prepared to stand up and be counted and are not willing to merely accept the crumbs off the millionaires' table."

The National Union of Journalists Freelance Office advises freelances with a regular contract with any Reach title (as opposed to working on commissioned work): "You should check its terms carefully before deciding how to act. If you are already contracted to work on the strike days, we are prevented from advising you not to continue to honour your contractual obligations. The NUJ's Freelance Office can give you advice on what your contract means." The Freelance Organisers add "We do understand that desks can hold back material for later publication, and that photographers who sell through agencies have little control of when their work is picked up".

The strike was delayed to allow negotiations under the auspices of the ACAS with a view to achieving a negotiated settlement. These talks broke down on 29 August. So the strike is on, on each of the following days:

09/09/22 The Group Chapel this afternoon agreed to call off the strike due to take place 14-16 September so that it can consult chapel members on a revised offer we have received from the company.

  • 14 September 2022
  • 15 September 2022
  • 17 September 2022
* www.nuj.org.uk/reachstrike updates and picket reports
* #NUJReachstrike on Twitter

Reach plc newspapers include the Express and Mirror and Daily Star titles; the Daily Record, Sunday Mail, Western Mail and Wales On Sunday, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, Bristol Post, Birmingham Mail Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury, The Journal and Evening Chronicle, South Wales Evening Post, Live websites and around 110 other city and local papers - many with online "Live" offshoots. In Ireland there are the Irish Daily Star, Irish Daily Mirror, Express, RSVP, DublinLive and BelfastLive..

Members will also carry out action short of a strike - consisting of a "work to rule" - from 00:01 hours on 1 September.

The NUJ has opened a Hardship Fund for Reach NUJ journalists. This will be open to applications from freelances who lose work through supporting the dispute. The donations page for the fund is at www.nuj.org.uk/resource/reach-hardship-fund.html.

The Freelance expects - but has not yet confirmed - that there will a picket at Canary Wharf on 14 September 2022, outside The Ledger Building, West India Quay, E14 4AL (map) From West India Quay Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station, head North (away from the water of North Dock), turn left into Hertsmere Road, and continue for 150 meters. If you take the DLR from Bank station, you will have to continue to Canary Wharf station and take a train back one station to West India Quay.

For pickets elsewhere see here.

Meanwhile in Scotland...

Meanwhile members may have to strike at National World titles including the Scotsman and regional papers such as the Edinburgh Evening News, Scotland on Sunday, the Falkirk Herald and Milngavie and Bearsden Herald. NUJ national organiser for Scotland, John Toner, said:

"Compulsory redundancies are a red line for our members, and we applaud their principled stance. It should go without saying, but we would prefer to resolve this dispute without the need for industrial action. There is still time for the employer to consider applications for voluntary redundancy that have been made and avoid the need to force our members out of their jobs."

A strike by staff journalists at National World titles called for Friday 26 August was cancelled to allow for talks. Follow @NUJScotland for updates.

The Freelance notes that freelances cannot, in law, strike: but we would not be surprised if any freelance called upon to work for Reach on relevant dates found themselves to be unavailable.

Please check back on this page and at www.nuj.org.uk/news for news of strike dates and other possible action.

©

Support the strike!

The first strike by journalists on UK national newspapers for 14 years – that's the prospect as the NUJ proudly joins the great nationwide wave of resistance to the cruel assault on living standards.

For journalists, we have the special bonus of getting some of our own back against the media corporations that have been attacking our living standards for more than 20 years. Thousands of jobs have been lost and wages frozen, while freelances have had their rates cut and their copyright stolen.

The union has been on the back foot but it has never given in, and now a new generation is standing up and fighting again. Freelances will support our colleagues taking action, because we are stronger together.

All power to our fellow members on strike, and to those who follow them; no doubt there will be more, until government and employers are made to realise they can't get away with they way they have been treating us any longer.

©
Chair, NUJ London Freelance Branch

    Note: The last strike was on 3 April 2008, at Express Newspapers – now of course part of the Reach group and the current dispute. The Mother of the Express chapel at the time was Michelle Stanistreet, now our General Secretary.

Adding insult to injury

2 September 2022 To add insult to the injury of an inadequate pay offer, the Mirror chapel reports that management has offered two £200 #CostOfLivingCrises payments for Reach plc staff earning under £50k. "Thanks for the crumbs off of your table, Jim," the chapel says: "your charity will keep us warm this winter."

Getting the latest

  • Frequently, if you re-visit this page your computer or phone will show you a version that it saved earlier - that it "cached", in the jargon.
  • To see the latest version on a Windows computer, try holding down the Ctrl key and hitting the F5 function key - or holding down both the Ctrl and Shift keys and hitting R.
  • On a Mac, hold down the Command ("Apple") key and hit R.
  • On the Chrome browser on an Android phone, the easiest route to explain is to copy the address of the page and open it in Incognito mode (accessible from the menu at top right). Simply tapping the address bar and then tapping the address of the page as it pops up may work.