Newsquest | Amid freeze, union seeks 5-8% raise

The request, to be submitted to management today, follows employees' 1,000 days at work without a pay raise, according to the National Union of Journalists, which represents scores of workers in Gannett's U.K. newspaper division: Newsquest.

The union also is protesting a proposed freeze of the Newsquest employee pension plan, according to a letter it delivered to GCI CEO Craig Dubow. "There is a grave danger that Newsquest's actions
now are storing up potential poverty in retirement for its most loyal employees,'' the letter says.

GCI froze its U.S. employee pension plan, effective August 2008.

Regarding the pay raise request, the NUJ says on its website: "Journalism in Newsquest is low paid: Annual pay freezes combined with increases in the cost of living means that NUJ members at Newsquest have had a pay cut in real terms."

Newsquest employs about 5,100 workers at 17 dailies and hundreds of weekly titles. GCI cut 23% of the division's jobs last year -- more than any other operating unit, according to regulatory filings. GCI bought the company in the summer of 1999 for about $1.5 billion.