Southern Echo journalists: 'Why we are striking'

Journalists on the Southern Daily Echo have set up a website telling why they are taking strike action this week in protest at the continuing company-wide pay freeze imposed by Newsquest.

According to a strike leaflet, starting pay for a graduate trainee journalist on the Southern Daily Echo is £16,500 and a senior reporter with five years experience gets less than £22,000.

Journalists at the Echo say loyalty payments for staff who remain on the same level, after two and five years, have been scrapped.

The website says: "The journalists at the Southern Daily Echo are proud to work on a newspaper that represents Southampton and Hampshire, and do their utmost to deliver a paper local people want to read.

"However, that is growing increasingly difficult as Newsquest continues to put mammoth profits ahead of readers and staff alike."

The Southern Daily Echo NUJ journalists, as well as their colleagues at Newsquest's The Argus, Brighton, plan to strike for 48 hours from tomorrow.