The NUJ in the newsBy Dave Crouch
More than 100 trade unionists packed into the London Welsh Centre on Thursday night to hear the NUJ’s general secretary Jeremy Dear and a host of leading union activists call for a powerful protest in Brighton next weekend at Labour party conference.
Fresh from the TUC in Liverpool, Jeremy spoke about the government’s lack of political will – unemployment can be beaten, but it means a change of priorities from the banks to working people, he said.
As trade unionists met in London this evening to help build for the Jobs, Education, Peace demo at Labour party conference on Sunday 27 September, father of the NUJ chapel at Express Newspapers, Steve Usher, sent this message of support:
Surviving NUJ members at the Express titles are currently going through yet another redundancy exercise.
There’s a reason why the Daily Mail has traditionally paid its staff relatively well – and it’s not because it’s a benevolent employer.
Reporters know that in working for the Mail you hand over a little piece of your soul when you file your copy.
Great news from the Birmingham Post and Mail that the chapels have secured an agreement there will be no compulsory redundancies.
Congratulations to the chapel members who mounted a solid, united resistance to these proposals, voting massively in favour of a strike.
NUJ members working for Trinity Mirror in the midlands will meet later this week to discuss what action to take after a resounding strike vote.
Of those who voted, 84% opted to take industrial action and 97% for action short of a strike after the company announced plans to close nine titles and cut 17 journalists’ jobs in the region.
News today that NUJ members in Middlesbrough are to ballot over threatened compulsory redundancies brings the total of Trinity Mirror chapels currently considering industrial action to five.
Members at the Evening Gazette are particularly angry that they are facing more cuts after jobs went six months ago, the NUJ reports.
Three big stories that in recent months have dominated the news, and will continue to do so for some time to come, bolster the union’s case that there is no substitute for well-resourced quality journalism.
When in April Ian Tomlinson died after being hit by a police officer during the G20 protests, it was professional journalism that turned a citizen’s shaky video footage into an investigation that is still turning up stories.
Chapels in dispute will get another helping hand as NUJ activists stage another Stand up for Journalism comedy benefit.
Following successful events in London and Glasgow earlier this year, tomorrow’s event will be in Stockport, chosen because the Guardian Media Group has abandoned the area by closing offices.
The NUJ’s Devon and Cornwall branch has been revived amid concerns about the savage cuts spreading across our industry.
Members in the south west are also angry about redundancies at Northcliffe subsidiary Cornwall and Devon Media, publishers of weekly titles and magazines across the two counties.
As NUJ members at the Trinity Mirror titles the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail took strike action yesterday over job cuts, the Scottish TUC called for a boycott. Brendan Barber take note.
More about the situation in Scotland will follow.