See you in two weeks

I'm away on annual leave for two weeks - enjoying the sun in Ghana while catching some games in the African Cup of Nations. I won't be blogging!

Media freedom under threat

Just taken part in an excellent conference - Media Freedom Under Threat - jointly organised by the NUJ and Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom.

Giving up Saturdays after working all week can seem like a chore some times. Today it was far from that. From Alan Johnston's passionate account of the dangers faced by journalists working in conflict zones, to Mark Stephens' humorous expose of the efects of the UK's libel laws, Jo Glanville and Heather Brooke's explanation of how the law restricts freedom of expression and freedom of information, to Peter Wilby, Granville Williams and Victoria Brittain looking at the commercialisation of media and its impact on the news agenda to Paul Mason and Tony Lennon debating the future of the BBC - all the sessions were great. And all provoked plenty of questions and discussion.
But what was best was you got a sense of a growing resistance to the attacks on public service broadcasting, to the tide of churnalism sweeping over local and national newspapers and to the restrictions on reporting embodied in things like SOCPA and the Terrorism Act.

What's important is we now find ways to take the debate out from the conference in to the workplaces and build strong industrial campaigns around quality journalism, ethics and reporting rights.

Saturday's conference followed another full day of meetings on Friday, a joint initiative with the US union to expose the lack of proper consultation over the Reuters-Thomson merger and a trip on Thursday to Dublin for the union's Irish Executive Council at which we had a full discussion on the union's financial situationand the need to concentrate on recruiting and organising, especially in an Irish media which is losing many of the protections it enjoyed for many years. As someone said at the meeting they have stopped smirking at how badly off journalists in the UK are as more and more employers adopt the same methods of seeking to marginalise the union and undermine collective bargaining.

BBC talks take their toll - but agreement reached

Another all night session - 19 hours of talks at the BBC - but it was worth it as we were finally able to reach an agreement in principle this morning and it was endorsed by our reps this afternoon.

I joked at about midnight last night (as we entered the 10th hour of the talks) that I was going to be late for my 9am meeting this morning if negotiations carried on at the pace they were going. At 9.15am this morning when I turned up late, direct from the negotiations, it didn't feel like a joke.

The agreement covers redundancies, UPA - the BBC's Unpredictability Allowance and pensions among other things and will be voted on by members of the three unions involved in the talks - NUJ, Bectu and Unite.

The BBC talks were followed immediately by an NUJ Pension Trstees meeting and the BBC reps meeting - lively as ever.

Now I'm fading fast and heading home for some well deserved sleep...


The talks take their toll

Dispatches from the picket line

I was on the picket line at 8.30am this morning supporting NUJ members at the Milton Keynes Citizen in their dispute over pay and in defence of quality journalism.

The strike sums up everything that our Stand Up for Journalism campaign is about. Their hugely profitable owners, super-rich Johnston Press, have cut jobs and expect remaining staff to fill in tne gaps. Staff struggle to maintain quality in the face of too few resources. Their reward? An effective pay cut. They have been offered 3% and want 3.5%. Given the wages they are paid it would cost Johnston Press very little. But, instead of reward hard-working committed journalists, Johnston bosses choose to squirrel their profits away and reward shareholders. I and President Michelle Stanistreet, IFJ President Jim Boumelha and National Organiser Barry Fitzpatrick joined the pickets - and Richard Brennan a journalism student doing work experience with the NUJ. Here's his account of his first strike.

The start of a three-day strike was well attended by the Milton Keynes Citizen NUJ chapel and their supporters. Around eighteen, including myself, attended the picket line near the Auckland Park offices while passing motorists hooted in support. A Stand Up For Journalism banner was taped to bushes while NUJ placards with slogans supporting local journalism were waved at passing traffic.
The reaction from local people has been extremely positive, with photographer David Langfield telling me that there have been “e-mails from people saying they’ve lived all their lives in Milton Keynes, and when they look at the Citizen it used to be news, now it’s just adverts.” Both local members of Parliament have also been lending their support to the dispute. The CWU has refused to deliver any mail to the Citizen offices while the dispute is on.
A BBC Look East reporter and cameraman covered the dispute while I was there, and Mother of the Chapel, Karen Jeffery, told me that Holdthefrontpage.co.uk and the Press Gazette have also been in contact as well.
The dispute centres on a pay deal and cutbacks. News editor Steve Larner told me that there has been a steady reduction in staffing, with a sports reporter replaced by a reporter having to cover both sport and news. The number of photographers has also been cut back from four to three. Replacement of senior staff with junior members has also been a concern. Steve Larner told me “The Citizen still has a good name” and those on the picket line today were keen to keep it that way.

MoC Karen Jeffery talks to the media

Support for the strike was just one of many issues the National Executive Council discussed on Friday and Saturday. The NEC also discussed the financial problems facing the union, the BBC dispute, plans for the Annual Delegate Meeting and a host of other industrial and organisational issues. Central to our discussions was a really good debate about recruitment.

Sunday night I tuned in for the start of the African Cup of Nations. I hope to be there in Ghana next week - but with the BBC ballot result due on Wednesday I may yet have to cancel my holiday.

Recruit and organise - the answer to decline and attacks

Recruitment, organising, winning recognition - the themes which have dominated the past couple of days work and the issues which are central to tackling the 18-month decline in union membership we've seen as a result of redundancies in many of our traditional areas of organising.

I was in Brussels yesterday for the meeting of the Global Unions Council which brings together 40 or so senior representatives of the entire global trade union movement. I represent the International Federation of Journalists on the council.

The meeting itself veered from frustrating to inspirational to frustrating. Whilst we came up with an agreed plan of action the real strength lay in hearing abut the organising efforts of the Australian unions, some of the US unions and unions in South Africa and Brazil where trade unionism is growing significantly. There was a growing recognition of the importance of communication as an organising tool and a realisation that it is not just members but active, campaigning unions which not only improve workers' pay and workers' rights but reduce inequality and deliver better social cohesion.

It seemed to me like a constant battle between the failed defensive period of the recent past and a new, more offensive trade unionism. I'm with the future as were a number of speakers but the past was also represented firmly - a fact demonstrated so graphically when one of the chairs took out a fob watch to see what time it was. It's 2008 - that's what time it is and unless we act now, trade unions and collective bargaining risk becoming as historical as that watch in some parts of the globalised economy.

Recruitment was also central to a lengthy and really valuable discussion at the Wales Executive Council which I attended on Saturday. The council put in place some concrete plans for both recruitment and seeking bargaining rights across the media in Wales. It is the only geographical part of the union to have posted a membership rise in the last quarter - hopefully the plans will enable it to continue to do so.

Monday morning I met with the General Secretaries of Bectu, Equity and the Musicians' Union to discuss the work of the Federation of Entertainment Unions before a meeting with Thompsons Solicitors, the union's lawyers to discuss to discuss the provision of legal services for the next five years.

Today it's off to the BBC for more negotiations...

Buddy can you spare a dime...?

Meetings, meetings, meetings...I'm just waiting for my 8th meeting of the day at 5.40pm on Friday evening.

Today started with negotiations with staff reps over the NUJ pension scheme, moved on to a meeting with the union's Treasurer, straight in to the Finance Committee, followed by a lunchtime telephone conference with my counterparts in the US, Australia, Belgium, Germany and Sweden and the IFJ, then a meeting with the union's investment advisor, before heading back to back to the Finance Committee for a tough discussion on union finances, then a meeting with a researcher putting together a project on trade union international solidarity issues and finally to a meeting with Guardian Chapel reps.

It's been day dominated by bad news - pension fund deficits, a worse performance of our investments and financial difficulties. Lend us 50p for a cup of tea?

But the past 48 hours have also been dominated by industrial issues - the talks at the BBC on Wednesday which set out a timetable and agenda for continuing negotiations over the coming days, the decision to postpone industrial action in York to enable more talks to take place and the announcement of industrial action at Milton Keynes.

Tomorrow I'm off to Cardiff for the Welsh Executive Council and a discussion on recruitment and organising while on Sunday it's a chance to write my section of the annual report. Then it's Monday again..goody!

A bit too eager..

I was a little too eager to string up those who breach the National Minimum Wage laws in Monday's post - it was in fact just the Second Reading of the Employment Bill - it's not yet law. It will be and they will get punished - just not yet.

Yesterday I went with our Campaigns and Communications Officer Stephen Pearse to the Express to meet with NUJ President Michelle Stanistreet to plan the next stages of our Stand Up for Journalism campaign and to draw up plans to provide more support to our reps in the workplaces and branches.

Later in the day I was at the TUC's Organisation and Representation Task Group which is at the heart of the TUC's campaigning for improved employment rights and for promoting union recruitment and organisation. We had a fascinating discussion reviewing the successes and failures of the past five years in terms of building union membership and how different unions had gone about it. There are lessons to be learned - from the union which found it was spending more on providing death grants than it was on recruitment to those who have built whole new departments just dedicated to recruiting new members and everything in between. What is clear is that unless yopu inspire and motivate workplace reps to be at the forefront of recruiting in their everyday activity you can never reach all the potential members. The discussion tied in well with the plans we'd been drawing up earlier in the day.

The committee also considered the implications of the European Court of Justice decisions in the Viking and Laval cases. They are mixed but potentially very dangerous. Effectively they recognise the right to collective action but then temper that with giving domestic courts powers to decide whether strike action is the appropriate response in certain circumstances.

On other issues I was able to push the case for employment status issues affecting media workers to be included on the agenda for the next talks with government.

Last night I spent the evening putting together a paper for the union's Finance Committee on Friday setting out radical steps to tackle the worsening financial situation the union is facing as a result of both increased costs and widespread redundancies in some of our core membership areas.

Today it's the start of BBC negotiations.

String 'em up..

New penalties for those breaching the National Minimum Wage legislation came in today and we put out a statement welcoming the changes - they feed in to our campaign against media employers who play on the image of a job in the so-called glamour industries to exploit young journalists and media workers. Companies who make millions exploiting the dreams of young and vulnerable workers deserve to be hit harder.

The union's campaign around work experience and vulnerable workers was just one of the issues on the agenda of Friday's Development Committee - one of the sub-committees of the National Executive which looks at the union's campaigns and recruitment activity. The Committee also heard updates on the BBC dispute the launch of the union's new website which has resulted in a significant increase in the length of time people spend using the site and had a debate about the recruitment of local press correspondents who are paid a pittance for providing copy for local newspapers.

This morning was taken up with meetings with Stephen Pearse our Campaigns and Communications Officer to consider the future direction of our Stand Up for Journalism campaign and plans for recruitment activity and material. I also met with our Finance Officer to look at a new report about the funds being held by many of the union's branches - some have almost £35,000 in their accounts and some of the money is in accounts of branches which have now been merged or disbanded and there has been no activity on the accounts for some years. Time to start thinking how that money could be put to better use!

This afternoon I chaired the TUC's Trades Councils committee and am now back catching up on emails and correspondence.

The New Year hangover..

After a restful Christmas and a rollicking new year it's back to business.

Yesterday was spent nursing the metaphorical new year break hangover and catching up on all the emails, writing letters and sitting with a calculator trying to find alternative funding arrangements for the union's pension fund. Still!

I also put together a branch circular to support the forthcoming Hope Not Hate events to mark the 30th anniversary of the Rock Against Racism carnival at Victoria Park which did so much to build trade union support and involvement in the struggle against racism and fascism in the 1970s.
The NUJ is one of a number of unions backing a major event to mark the anniversary and build an educational anti-racism legacy project.

Today was the union's Policy Committee, which had on its agenda issues relating to our work with the Federation of Entertainment Unions, the TUC, with our Parliamentary Group, with the European Federation of Journalists and the IFJ. We confirmed that Alan Johnston would be one of the guest speakers at the union's annual conference in early April alongside Naim Toubassi the head of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate who did so much to keep Alan's plight in the news and high up the political agenda. It should make for a remarkable session at the conference.

Yesterday, with the close of the unions' strike ballot due next week, we wrote to the BBC urging last-ditch talks to try to avoid a damaging dispute. There were informal contacts today to try to find common ground for further negotiations. Here's hoping.