VIDEO: NUJ journalists strike for the first time in 40 years

NUJ treasurer Paul Breeden outlines the 40-year cost of living crisis behind this week's strike by journalists across the UK.

In response to not only the current cost-of-living crisis, but their ongoing decades-long cost-of-living crisis, journalists of the NUJ went on strike this week.

Several further strike days are planned later this month, and outside of strike days journalists will ‘work to rule’—that is, refuse any overtime or work outside their job description—until a deal is made.

Journalists’ salaries have more than stagnated - they have, at best, remained unchanged in ten years, and in some cases reduced, according to Bristol NUJ treasurer Paul Breeden. He adds that “overworked and underappreciated” journalists “work hours and hours beyond the time that they’re supposed to” due to punishing workloads:

“Journalism is a profession that attracts people who are very dedicated. And that makes them less likely to make a fuss, and more likely to make them put up with unfair pay and conditions. But in the current economic circumstances, what they’re being offered isn’t even enough to pay rent.

There’s an irony that in Bristol, where rents are really high and it’s expensive to live, journalists are being asked to write stories about how they can’t afford to pay their rent, and have a decent life.”

Regular readers will remember my coverage of this earlier in the year - Reach being perhaps the worst offender simply due to its status as the wealthiest news publisher in the country:

"Media Elite"?: The Poverty Wages of UK Journalism