FT journalists vote to strike

Roy Greenslade of The Guardian in London reports that journalists at the Financial Times have voted to strike.

Greenslade writes, “The management had offered a rise of 2%, while retaining a third of the money set aside for this year’s increase, to use as merit pay or for staff retention at the managing editor’s discretion.

“The strike call by members of the National Union of Journalists came as the FT announced a 27% profit increase at the group.

“It also followed the revelation that the group’s chief executive, John Ridding, was paid £928,000 in 2010.

“According to the NUJ, figures obtained from Companies House showed that his remuneration increased by 95% in the four years to 2010.

“During the same period, staff were asked to accept redundancies and a one-year pay freeze.”

Read more here.

UPDATE: The Greenslade story has been updated to note that the FT has offered a 3.5 percent pay raise.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.