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.
NUJ treasurer and veteran activist Anita Halpin received the TUC gold badge in honour of her services to the union movement as she stepped down from the TUC’s general council.
Accepting the prestigious award on the last day of congress, the annual gathering of trade unionists, she paid tribute to her husband, Kevin, who she described as “a thorn in the side of the bosses”.
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 has never been a greater need for a union that connects with the rising mood of militancy around the country and fights to defend every job.
That’s why NUJ Left is asking for your vote. All our candidates pledge to campaign for strategies based on the most effective and strident action – official or unofficial – to defend jobs, pay, conditions and quality journalism.
Support for six Gambian journalists is now more important than ever as they face two years in jail following their convictions for sedition.
The NUJ has been campaigning against this attack on press freedom alongside the International Federation of Journalists, the TUC and Amnesty International.
by Dave Crouch
We are living through the worst economic crisis for 60 years. No one has any idea how it will pan out or when it will end.
Unemployment is soaring. Yet where are the unions? We should be battering on the doors of parliament.
One thing inevitably lost in the coverage of the case of the four Unison activists banned from office after criticising the union’s leadership is the contribution they made to their local media.
As a former chief reporter who covered Bromley for a south east London weekly, one of my reliable contacts was Glenn Kelly, the local council’s Unison branch secretary.
NUJ Left activists were a visible and vocal presence at what veterans of the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival have described as the “biggest and best” ever.
The gathering is held annually in the Dorset village made famous by six 19th century agricultural workers who took an oath of allegiance to fight to improve wages and conditions for their fellow workers.
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.
Two events are being held next week to show solidarity with our colleagues in Gambia.
On Monday 20 July journalists in Glasgow will hold a vigil in support of the seven journalists facing trial for sedition.