Strike vote by journalists

Press, 26 June 1978, Page 1

Strike vote by journalists

PA Wellington Journalists had voted three to one in favour of industrial action to press their pay claim, said the secretary of the New Zealand Journalists’ Union (Mr M. P. Conway) yesterday after a national ballot had been counted. Union officials will meet this afternoon to consider what further action to take. The union, which covers newspaper and magazine journalists outside the Auckland area, seeks pay increases averaging about 23 per cent. It says they are needed to restore journalists’ wage relativity with their 1972 level, when an independent arbitrator, Sir Arnold Nordmeyer, determined their wage scale. The Newspaper Publishers’ Association had disputed the journalists’ calculations, and has offered rises of between 3.4 per cent and 7.3 per cent.

Journalists on the “Manawatu Evening Standard” returned to work this morning after a walk-out on Friday over a separate dispute. The journalists decided to

stop work when they heard that a proofreader had been dismissed and another compulsorily retired, while a JS (senior) reporter had been given the option of leaving, or transferring to proofreading. The journalists decided to return to work after they agreed with the newspaper’s management that a personal grievance committee would consider the cases. The three staff members will stay in tueir old posts for the next fortnight, at least, while they work out their notice. Mr Conway said the journalists had been worried about the dismissals because they had had an assurance only a week earlier that the company would not make anyone redundant. The newspaper’s editor (Mr R. D. Watson) said yesterday that he had given the assurance in response to a o’wstion which he had thought referred to the staff as a whole. The dismissals were part of a natural progression that occurred on all newspapers, he said.