Newsquest Strike
Staff at the Newsquest-owned Brighton Argus today voted overwhelmingly in support of a third strike later this week.

In total, 18 out of 19 National Union of Journalists members at the title voted in favour of strike action, which is due to take place on Thursday and Friday.

Two sets of strikes have already been carried out at the title in an ongoing dispute over the relocation of sub-editing operations to Southampton, as well as a pay-freeze and the closure of the pension scheme to future accrual.

Staff at the Southern Daily Echo, also published by Newquest, will also go on strike this week, with three days of industrial action planned starting tomorrow.

Staff at the Echo are angry over a management decision to "recognise" the work of those who didn't strike during previous action with extra payment.

According to a press release, the chapel decided to strike for an extra day "as a 'bonus' for managers at the paper".

Staff and management at the Argus are due to meet on Friday for a staff council meeting, although it is not yet known exactly what will be discussed or if any offers will be made.

Following ballots for industrial action at a number of other Newsquest titles in the UK, a two per cent pay offer was made to some centres, understood to include Bradford, York and Darlington.

Father of the NUJ chapel at the Argus, Tim Norman told Journalism.co.uk that so far there has been no offer made to Brighton.

It would be "quite a big deal" for members if two per cent were to be put on the table, he said. Staff would then hold another vote on the situation.

Journalism.co.uk has not yet received a response to a request for comment from Argus editor Michael Beard.

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