Express Newspaper journalists began their first in a series of three 24-hour strikes protesting the 3 percent pay offer made by the company, BBC News reported Friday.

UK-based Express Newspapers' offer of 3 percent was “well below the 4.3 percent awarded to the company's printers as part of a three-year deal,” the newspaper's union stated.

Express Newspapers publishes the Daily and Sunday Star and the Daily and Sunday Express

The newspaper group told staff it can not “insulate” them from the “effects of the wider economy,” the BBC reported.

“These papers, now more than ever, need properly resourced journalism, yet all the company has to offer is cutbacks and miserly pay,” Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary said, according to the BBC.