Fréttablaðið was published this morning without any news articles. Print journalists went on a 12-hour strike yesterday.
Last week, the Union of Icelandic Journalists voted down a proposed agreement with the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise. The two parties met again this week but adjourned without a contract. Following the meeting, union members went ahead with their fourth proposed strike yesterday.
The strike was the first to include print journalists at Morgunblaðið and Fréttablaðið, as well as photographers and videographers. Fréttablaðið – which is distributed every day of the week except Sundays – was published this morning without any news articles. The newspaper contained only freelance articles and advertisements.
Print journalists at Morgunblaðið also went on a 12-hour strike yesterday. The strike did not, however, seem to impact the content of today’s paper. This is not the first time that strikes at Morgunblaðið prove ineffectual. During earlier strikes among web-media journalists at Morgunblaðið, several other journalists who do not usually write news on mbl.is began reporting for the website. The Union of Icelandic Journalists subsequently sued Árvakur, Morgunblaðið’s publisher, for violating the strike. A decision is currently pending in the Icelandic Labour Court.
Morgunblaðið laid off 15 employees in late November.
