By Sarah Lagan
On the day Trinity Mirror released its annual profits the NUJ took
to the streets to protest about what it says are low pay rates for
journalists throughout the group.
As part of the union’s Fair Pay Now campaign, launched in 2003,
journalists distributed 20,000 leaflets to the local communities where
Trinity Mirror’s main newspaper centres are based, including London,
Birmingham and Newcastle upon Tyne.
Letters were sent to MPs,
councillors and business leaders, and union general secretary Jeremy
Dear wrote to Trinity chief executive Sly Bailey on the matter.
So far he has not yet had a response but Bailey was quoted as saying the company was in talks with the NUJ over pay.
The union is keen to talk to Trinity on a national level to get a five per cent pay increase across the board for journalists.
Dear
said: “If Trinity did what we asked and increased pay across the board
by five per cent, it would cost the same money it makes in two days.
“We
are pledged to continue protesting over and exposing low pay. Since we
launched Fair Pay Now, trainee pay throughout the top publishers has
risen by 25 per cent.”
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