Journalists at Brighton and Hove’s daily newspaper, The Argus, have voted for a second two-day strike.
The strike will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday (7 and 8 December) in the dispute about the loss of six news sub-editors’ jobs.
The jobs are being lost as the subs’ work is to be carried out in Southampton instead of at the Argus offices in Hollingbury.
Argus staff belonging to the National Union of Journalists went on strike on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 November over the same issue.
The strike is also a protest about the three-year pay freeze imposed on staff by Newsquest, which owns The Argus.
Staff were angered to learn that the since the pay freeze started, Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson had enjoyed a six-figure pay rise from £501,000 in 2008 to £609,000 in 2009.
And having been told that job losses were necessary because of the company’s financial position, they were angered to hear a different story from Gannett, the American company that owns Newsquest.
Gannett’s chief financial officer, Gracia Martore, told US investment analysts that Newsquest, its British newspaper publishing division, was making healthy profits.
The financial picture in 2009 can be read in the company’s most recent annual report by clicking here.
Newsquest made an operating profit of £71 million.
It also made interest payments totalling £64 million on a loan or loans from other parts of the Gannett corporation.
