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June 18, 2010

Strike threat dropped at Morning Star as pay deal reached

By Oliver Luft

Journalists at the Morning Star have called off proposed strike action after settling a dispute with management over pay.

More than 20 members of the National Union of Journalists had threatened to walk out later this month if demands to increase their basic pay and provide some form of compensation for working anti-social hours were not met.

According to the union, the stand-off was ended after the owner of the left-wing newspaper, the People’s Press Printing Society, offered staff a two-year pay deal.

The deal will result in a salary increase of £900 this year with the promise of an additional pay rise next year, the union said.

In addition, union members have accepted a new rate for working unsocial hours, giving all journalists at least an extra four days off per year in return for bank holiday and Sunday working.

The deal has to be endorsed by the management committee of the People’s Press Printing Society which meets next week.

A proposed strike over an earlier pay dispute at the Morning Star was narrowly averted in March last year when staff were awarded a £19,000 minimum salary.

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