Bring me sunshine

The week started with a conference call with BBC management in advance of their submission to the Ofcom review of Public Service Broadcasting. We broadly welcome the BBC's submission although there are some elements which cause us concern - the pooling of news resources (leading to job cuts at ITV) and their insistence of 'self-help' at Channel 4 (leading to job cuts at C4). But we strongly support their case for defence of the unitary receipt of the licence fee and welcome BBC support for the idea of using other regulatory mechanisms such as spectrum allocation to help fund commercial public service broadcasters.

On Monday I also met Richard Balfe, the Conservative Party's envoy to the co-operative and trades union movement. Honestly, that's what it says on his business card.

We asked lots of questions about what a future Conservative government would do on employment law, statutory recognition, the future of public service broadcasting. We've not had any answers yet.

Having had 3 NEC sub-committees at the end of last week I also spent some time following up as many action points as possible and wrote to Lord Malloch-Brown following up my recent meeting with him.

On Tuesday I had a telephone conference with officials from the newspapers sector to discuss the latest job cuts at Newsquest and the situation in Scotland. We will be talking with all our reps in the next couple of weeks to plan the next stage of our campaign against increased workloads and stress resulting from the job losses.

I also put in our submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights which is looking in to policing and protest, pulling together material about the intimidation, harassment, violence and obstruction faced by journalists, especially photographers and camera crew, covering protests and our recent concerns over police surveillance of photographers. There's some more excellent stuff on it on the these two blogs.

http://www.marcvallee.co.uk/blog_250608.html

http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/06/agent-provocatuer-covert-police-inside.html

Finally yesterday it was over to the South London Press for the next stage of the wage negotiations. First off we met management and then had a chapel meeting.

Today I'm having another phone conference - this time with the chair and vice-chair of policy committee to plan some of the work over the coming months, am meeting with Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey to continue our discussions about sharing a building before a campaigns meeting with reps from the BBC World Service's South Asia service.

Then I'm off to Glastonbury tonight. So the blog won't be back around until Tuesday next week. But you can still keep up with what I'm up to here


For the past 8 years or so I and a number of NU activists have worked at Glastonbury every year - either with the Workers' Beer Company raising money for NUJ and labour movement causes or in more recent years in The Leftfield - the social conscience of the festival. This year my grand title is Political Liaison Officer for The Leftfield. But over the next 4 days we've got bands, speakers, stalls, rallies on slavery, anti-racism, miscarriages of justice, Latin America, trade union rights and much more. It's not everyone's idea of a holiday but I get a real buzz and inspiration from all the campaigners, bands, comedians putting in so much effort for free to highlight injustice and campaign for change.

This year I'm also helping to run the Leftfield Blog.

What am i looking forward to seeing this year? Apart from some bloody sunshine, Manu Chao - and NUJ member Tony Benn of course. I wonder if they'll do a number together...

Remembering Ron

It was hugely sad to hear the news of Ron Knowles death earlier this week. I only had the opportunity to meet Ron when he was over for the Centenary ADM - but found him hugely likeable. But i feel i know a lot about him by the reverential tones others speak of him. Having just read the comments others have left on the story on our website it is clear he was an inspiring figure for so many activists. If you want to know more about Ron's work or life read the NUJ's history (insert shameless commercial plug - ed) available here.

Ron was a fighter and he'd have been proud of the union backing cases like that of Shiv Malik - who fought off the police's fishing expedition aimed at forcing him to hand over huge swathes of journalistic material. It was a short court hearing on Thursday morning but a judgement with real value in defending investigative journalism against increased police powers of seizure.

I'm all committee-d out. Wednesday was Finance Committee and trying to come to terms with drawing up the union's budget at a tough time financially. We're still not there yet. Thursday was Policy Committee and beginning the process of working out how to implement all those motions from the annual conference on media ownership, freelance rights, employment legislation, human rights and international solidarity issues. It's a huge agenda for the year ahead. Today is Development Committee looking at the union's structure review, Journalism Matters campaign , disputes, recognition and recruitment and campaigning priorities. An even bigger agenda!

Outside of the committees I've been trying to keep up with phone calls, emails and correspondence. This morning I and Christine Blower, acting General Secretary of the NUT met Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office Minister to discuss Ethiopia - and the imprisonment of journalists and teacher union activists, the closure of independent media and the banning of the Ethiopian Journalists Free Press Association and Ethiopian Teachers Association. Lord Malloch Brown agreed to raise the issue of human rights when he meets the Ethiopian Prime Minister shortly.

We also submitted our response to the Ofcom consultation on public service broadcasting yesterday making it clear we oppose top-slicing, want action against cuts at ITV and believe there are options which should be properly considered and actively investigated to maintain and strengthen public service broadcasting in the future.

There will be little time for a break this weekend with two meetings on Saturday, including the memorial for Steve Sinnott and an anti-racist demonstration.

Support jailed journalist

What a strange evening - seeing Alan Johnston hand an Amnesty International human rights award over to long-time NUJ activist Jim Boumelha in the wonderful surroundings of the Royal Horticultural Halls.

The award wasn't for Jim he was, as President of the International Federation of Journalists, collecting it on behalf of the jailed Yemeni journalist Abdelkarim Al Khaiwani. The NUJ is working with the IFJ and Amnesty to bring pressure to campaign for his speedy release and the right to a fair trial. You can take action to help with the campaign here

It was the Amnesty Human Rights Media Awards, a fantastic event recognising the best in human rights journalism. I had been one of the judges in the periodicals category this year and was delighted to see Jo Glanville and the team from Index on Censorship pick up one of the two awards I had judged for their special edition on media freedom (or more accurately lack of it!) in Russia. A brilliant piece of work.

A word in your Shell-like

Monday afternoon books organiser Sue Harris and I met with reps at Pearson in Oxford where we are about to start negotiating a new agreement. It's a chapel which has built itself up from just 3 members last year and is looking at doing a pay survey alongside other activity in the build-up to a meeting with the new management in early July.

This morning it was to the TUC Executive - on the agenda was updates on the Employment Bill, the Agency Workers' Directive, Zimbabwe, TUC Finances and the latest stats on union membership - which may well show a rise this year.

Tony Woodley, the Unite/T&G General Secretary updated us on the tanker drivers' dispute. There are further talks taking place today but it was interesting to find out that during the 1990's the drivers lost up to £7000 a year and their final salary pension scheme (they will now have to work 10 years extra to get the same pension) after being bribed to take on new contracts. It happened in the media industry a lot at the time too. People signed what looked like good new contracts for a one-off payment but actually over the years lost substantial sums. Many in our industry have never recovered from that.

The T&G were also derecognised on the back of the ditching of the existing contracts.
Now those drivers are seeking to recoup some of their lost monies.

Hopefully there will be a quick solution to the dispute and the drivers get a fair pay award amid profiteering from Shell.

I've fired off a few reports this afternoon for NEC sub-committees taking place later this week - three in three days before heading off this evening to the Amnesty International Media Awards which I was one of the judges for this year.

A weekend in Sheffield

I’m just heading back on the train after three days at the annual conference of Trades Union Councils which I chair (yes, that is how i spend my weekends!).

These bastions of socialism in the community are (slightly) on the up but they need a real injection of youth to help them grow further. The NUJ did its best bringing Sam Southgate from the York Newsquest strikers to Sheffield to speak to the conference. More than £210 was raised along with lots of pledges of support.

Trades Councils bring together activists across different unions and work alongside community campaigns to ensure the collective voice of trade unions is heard locally but they suffer from low attendances, too few activists and being neglected by too many unions. They should be real vital organisations but too many are not and conference is a chance to share best practice and seek to continue the steady growth there has been over the past few years.

At the tail end of last week I had meetings with Joanne Butcher, Chief Executive of the NCTJ to discuss training issues – and to try (again) to develop a more constructive relationship. I like Joanne Butcher but we seem to spend a lot of time fighting each other. She just seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She has consistently said the NCTJ want to work with us but there has been little action to deliver it. That makes people suspicious. Hopefully this time we can overcome the suspicion and get on with the kind of positive work Joanne and I discussed.

I also met with Paul Evans the new co-ordinator for the Federation of Entertainment Unions to discuss the responses to the latest Ofcom consultation on public service broadcasting and went with colleagues from BECTU and the GFTU to see a potential new building for the three organisations. Of course such a move has sparked rumours of merger and widespread redundancies – neither are true.

I was due to attend my first meeting of the Publishing Skills Council – but at the last minute my invitation was withdrawn. It looks like the Newspaper Society still can’t bring themselves to sit in a room with the NUJ.

Government Minister detained

This afternoon I and other union senior officials met with Lovemore Matombo, President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and heard graphically about the situation facing trade unionists and journalists in Zimbabwe - not just the violence and intimidation but the economic woes. Lovemore pointed out that since he left Zimbabwe two weeks ago the cost of a loaf of bread had increased six-fold and that hyperinflation was rampant.

We were due to meet with DfiD Ministers - but were told at the last minute they had been detained in the Commons as a result of the vote on Government plans to increase police powers to detain terror suspects. No-one could clarify if they were being detained for 28 or 42 days.

The NUJ has proudly supported the Zimbabwean journalists' union - last month thanks to the generosity of branches we were able to provide them with laptops to replace a computer wrecked when their offices were raided. More help for unions in Zimbabwe is always needed. Find out how you can help here

On Monday I was in Wales giving evidence to the Broadcasting Committee of the National Assembly which was discussing public service broadcasting in Wales. After the committee I met with Rhodri Morgan the First Minister of Wales to convey our concerns about the state of the media in Wales and the threat cuts imposed at ITV, the BBC and in newspapers pose to quality journalism. Today's report by the BBC Trust on the coverage of the nations and regions backs up our point - you can't have the depth, quality and breadth of coverage if you don't invest in journalists and news-gathering.

Tuesday was packed with meetings - starting with a phone conference with Carl Roper at the TUC , discussions with Skillset, staff meetings and the first of a series of budget meetings with National Officers. A balanced budget is still a long way off!

The day was rounded off by a meeting with NUJ reps at the South London Press as part of our pay negotiations at the Tindle-owned title. We are keen to secure a new pay/grading structure. The results of a pay survey are shocking. Low pay is alive and well in local papers in London with one qualified journalist with more than five years service earning just £18,500.

Catching up after catching some sun

Whoops - forgot to post before I went away leaving you breathless on the edge of your seats as to what I was up to - or not.

I've spent the last few days taking a break in Istanbul, a fantastic city - beautiful, great food, some lively bars, brilliant music (which is more than can be said for our dancing to it!).

But back to work - spent Wednesday 28th in Dublin visiting members at RTE where they are engaged in a major battle over the future of their pension.

Thursday I spoke at the Media and Minorities Conference in Islington, taking part in a panel discussion about efforts to address the under-representation of people from ethnic minorities in too many newsrooms and sections of the media. That evening I went to the London hustings in the NUJ's Deputy General Secretary election. Have you voted yet? If not, why not?

Friday I took a step back in time to join reps at the South London Press in their pay negotiations with new owners Tindles. I used to handle the negotiations there when I was newspapers organiser.

Friday we also had a small staff farewell for John Fray, retiring Deputy General Secretary. I've paid many tributes over the past few weeks to John but it was good to get another opportunity to thank him for all his work on behalf of thousands of NUJ members over his 20-plus years at the NUJ.

Monday it was budget day - actually the start of the budgeting process - the point where I put all the budget claims in to the spreadsheet, have a small tantrum and begin shaping the budget to fit our industrial priorities and needs. Oh, and 'rationalising' claims. Ok, cutting them. I also met with Sarah Veale at the TUC and with Jim Boumelha, President of the International Federation of Journalists.

Monday ended with a meeting with BBC Director General Mark Thompson and the other Federation of Entertainment Unions members to discuss the current Ofcom review of Public Service Broadcasting. After meeting with Mark Thompson the unions met to discus our joint response - and how best to co-ordinate our opposition to top slicing the BBC licence fee whilst finding ways to ensure the survival of Channel 4 and ITV news and current affairs.

In between meetings letters also went to employers identified in our recent survey of work experience to seek their responses to allegations that they were failing to abide by the terms of the National Minimum Wage, I wrote an article for Red Pepper on the threat faced by trade unionists and journalists in Colombia, highlighted concerns over police surveillance of journalists which was picked up by a number of media and answered dozens of emails/letters which just never stop. If yours is one of the 297 still waiting to be answered - sorry. I'm getting there. That will teach me to go away...