Media Unions

National Union of Journalists (NUJ), print unions, broadcast unions

Birmingham Bagmakers: Striking for some dignity

Workers at Euro Packaging in Birmingham, which makes paper bags, have been on strike against redundancies and for a 37.5 hour week. The workers are members of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union. The employers are notorious for bad pay and conditions (some workers, say the union, work up to 80 hours a week and most are on minimum wage or just above). The GPMU was recently organised and won recognition. The employers have responded by "selecting" key organisers for redundancy.

NUJ political fund defeat

By a London Freelance branch member The proposal for the National Union of Journalists to have a political fund has been narrowly defeated in a ballot of members: 53% voted no and 47% yes on a turnout of 28.6%. NUJ President George Macintyre commented: "The union will respect the result but will continue to campaign politically around issues that matter to members, and will hope not to face any legal challenge." The ballot fulfilled a decision of the 2003 Annual Delegate Meeting. The leadership of the union put a lot of effort into getting a yes vote, but were hampered by high profile...

NUJ defends itself against the BNP

On Monday 16 February the BNP started their campaign for the local government elections with demonstrations outside the Commission for Racial Equality and the journalists' union NUJ. Around 50 Nazis demonstrated at lunchtime outside the NUJ HQ on Gray's Inn Road, London. An NUJ press statement commented: "The reason the BNP has given for the demo is to protest the poor media coverage of the death of a white youth in Oldham, allegedly at the hands of Asian youth. The real reason is to use the opportunity to pose as the defenders of white people from supposed Asian and Black thugs. "If they...

BBC: We should protest over jobs and pay

By a BECTU member Hundreds of BBC staff protested in defence of the Corporation's independence on Thursday 5 February. The demonstrations, called by unions BECTU, NUJ and Amicus, were held outside BBC buildings across the country. The unions should be trying to build on the anger at the Hutton report to mobilise BBC staff on other issues - like pay, conditions and the planned privatisation of BBC Technology. But there is little sign that this is happening. The 5 February protests had tacit support from management, who are quite happy to have the unions standing up for the BBC against the...

Press Gang: Do it for the money, Burrell

By Lucy Clement In Paul Burrell's position, let's face it, most people would do the same thing. Cash in. And why not? There's not much respect left for the British Royal Family to destroy, now the Queen Mum's dead and with her all that Blitz-heroine mythology. It's a shame that Burrell's sticking to the tired old line of 'doing it for Diana', but after all those years as a flunkey it's probably too much to expect him suddenly to come out and declare yes, the Royals are a bunch of parasites and here's the inside story. Much-trailed in the press has been the 'nuclear' secret that could 'rock the...

GPMU debates merger and the organising campaign

By a GPMU member The Graphical Paper and Media Union held its biennial delegate conference last week in Bournemouth. It was totally dominated by a debate on the future of the union in the face of membership loss and impending financial crisis. Despite a long-running feud between a minority of branches and the head office over a merger with another union the conference voted to clear the way to it. The most likely partners are the TGWU and Amicus. A group of branches, alarmed that for the first time an amendment proposed ending the GPMU's involvement in the TUC Organising Academy and the...

What we say: Fight for labour representation!

New transport union leader Tony Woodley has pledged to coordinate a trade-union drive "to get Labour back representing working-class people". After winning election as the new General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, Woodley declared on 1 June that: "A fighting T&G will help coordinate like-minded unions to campaign to put the 'Labour back in the party' on a range of issues. I'll fulfil my promise to call a summit of affiliated unions to discuss how to get Labour back representing working-class people... "It means representing members rather than ministers as we take the...

Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair

29 May-1 June in the Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh Talks: George Monbiot on "A Manifesto for a New World Order"; Paul Kingsnorth and Mark Curtis on Global Capitalism; Milan Rai and Geoff Simons on Iraq after the war; and Joe Baxter of No Sweat and Gregor Gall on Workers' Struggles and Trade Unions.

Bradford Newquest strike escalates

By Vicki Morris Newsquest Bradford managers are becoming increasingly isolated in their stand-off with their workers. Managing director David Coates and his group editor Perry Austin-Clarke have been told by government minster Chris Leslie they should pay their journalists more. Elsewhere in the Newsquest empire, NUJ members are being offered deals considerably better than the miserly two percent on the table at Bradford. Government minister Chris Leslie told Newsquest Bradford bosses to improve their offer. He wrote to managing director David Coates: "I am concerned that there is an ongoing...

Journalists strike against low pay

The NUJ chapel at Newsquest Bradford began a 10-day strike over pay on 14 March. The company had failed to improve on their 2% pay offer since the NUJ chapel staged a week-long stoppage in February. Trainees are on as little as £12,000 and qualified senior journalists on just £15,000. Newsquest workers at Kendal, who had four days on strike in February, took another four days from 18 March. Another Newsquest chapel at Bolton has rejected a 2% pay offer, and began balloting over industrial action on March 11. In the Midlands, journalists at the Birmingham Post and Mail and Coventry Newspapers...

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