The majority of journalists employed by Newsquest (Bradford) - publishers of the Telegraph & Argus - were working normally today despite a pay strike.

A handful of members of the National Union of Journalists picketed the T&A head office in Hall Ings, Bradford, early today but their actions had no effect on the publication of the newspaper.

All the company's newspapers will appear as normal despite the planned series of three two-day strikes, which were voted for by just 42 journalists.

The journalists - less than half of those employed by Newsquest (Bradford) Ltd, publishers of the T&A - are demanding a £2,000 across-the-board pay increase.

They are also demanding a 35-hour working week, more holidays (on top of their current five weeks plus bank holidays), extra pay scale bands and higher mileage rates.

The average journalist's salary on the T&A is more than £20,000 per annum.

Talks between Newsquest (Bradford) and members of the NUJ are continuing in an effort to resolve the dispute despite the refusal of union membersto postpone the walkout to allow the talks to be held in a constructive atmosphere.

Managing director David Coates said: "All our journalists are fully aware that the local economy is struggling and that both our profits and our revenues have fallen dramatically in the last year. It is deeply disappointing that a minority of our journalists should choose to take action which can only damage the company, especially when most of our staff have already accepted our pay offer.

"We have made every effort to move towards meeting the chapel's demands but so far they have refused to modify their claim in any way and, in fact, have added further demands at a late stage."

The Newsquest Media group is owned by Gannett, the biggest newspaper publishers in the United States.

The union claims that all the company's profits are siphoned off to directors in "Surrey and the US" but in fact one of the main board directors lives in the Bradford district, as do most of the T&A's 400-plus staff.

Gannett has invested more than £4 million in the T&A's press in recent years enabling it to improve its service to readers and advertisers and to win contracts to print national daily and Sunday newspapers, creating dozens of new jobs.

The T&A is Yorkshire's Daily Newspaper of the Year and it picked up a host of awards last year.

In recent years it has helped raise millions of pounds for charity, including the Scanner Appeal and the Bradford Can... cancer research appeal.

The company is an Investors in People employer which meets the standard in full and was congratulated by assessors on its achievements.