The farmers protest escalates, Guardian hacks threaten strikes and more; catch up on the latest City gossip in this week’s edition of The Capitalist The faith of The Guardian leadership that unions are “ good for capitalism ” may be in doubt after news yesterday that journalists at the leftwing paper are due to go on strike, after voting overwhelmingly (93 per cent) in favour of industrial action in an NUJ ballot. The dispute comes in response to The Guardian’s proposed sale of its Sunday title The Observer to Tortoise Media, a startup set up in 2018 to champion “slow news” that is yet to turn a profit. What strike action at The Guardian will look like is yet to be seen, though perhaps inspiration will be taken from their progressive cousins across the pond, The New York Times, where tech staff earlier this month carried out an eight-day strike and – more devastating for some – NYT Games boycott over the US election.
The workers have since returned to the negotiating table, where pet bereavement leave, a four-day work week and a ban on scented products in break rooms are among their demands to be discussed. Farmers certainly took the fight to Westminster at their protest this week, but not quite to the extent advertised by Sky News, whose video reel mixup (pictured) suggested quite the escalation of affairs. Explaining the planned protest over Labour’s changes to inheritance tax on farms, a Sky News reader described the growing anger of UK farmers as visuals.