Strike at Northern Advocate

Journalists and dispatch workers at the Northern Advocate daily newspaper in Whangarei have walked off the job in a dispute over pay.

Some 30 workers voted to strike from 4pm today until 6am on Wednesday after their employer refused to increase a pay offer.

The workers are seeking a 3.5 per cent pay rise for a one-year agreement. The company is offering 2.9 per cent this year and 2.5 per cent next year, plus a $175 gross one-off payment in September.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little said that the workers at the Advocate had effectively taken pay cuts over the past five years, and would not settle for less than the average pay rise of 3.5 per cent this year.

“They consider it insulting for the company to say that they are less than average,” he said.

The Northern Advocate is owned by Irishman Tony O’Reilly’s Australian Provincial Newspapers – the same company that owns the New Zealand Herald. The paper is printed in Auckland.

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