![[Freelance]](../gif/fl3H.png)
Talks with Reach to include freelance rates
NUJ MEMBERS employed by Reach - which published the Mirror, Express and local newspapers - voted at the end of September to accept an improved pay offer. As a result of the strike there are some 400 new NUJ members who work for Reach. Several Reach titles that previously had no NUJ chapel now have one. A chapel is an NUJ unit of workplace organisation.
The revised pay offer gives editorial staff members pay increases between 14 and 44 per cent. A statement on the NUJ website emphasises that the agreement was only the beginning. The NUJ and Reach will now enter into a process to discuss "meaningful career progression", "outstanding pay anomalies" and other issues. Negotiations with Reach over pay in 2023 are scheduled to begin this autumn.
The NUJ Group Chapel at Reach is seeking to tie freelance rates into these pay negotiations. The Freelance understands that Reach management is due to meet with the NUJ on freelance rates. NUJ Freelance Officer Andy Smith is part of the NUJ negotiating team engaged in continuing talks with Reach over pay. Watch this space for news of any developments.
Meanwhile, stand by for possible strike dates at other news outlets. NUJ members on staff at Al Jazeera International have voted for industrial action over a derisory 4.5 per cent pay offer, and NUJ staffers at National World titles have voted for strike action over compulsory redundancies.