viewpoint Unions need to communicate effectively, says Nicola Coleman


Organise, win, and then tell your story


I


n trade unionism, as in journalism, the difference between success and failure is often in the storytelling.


Getting people to engage requires an appeal to empathy, shared experience and the sleeping activist within. It requires simplicity. When issues seem complicated or bogged down by bureaucracy and jargon, simplicity in storytelling can prove the difference between inspiration and alienation. When I tell the story of the Derry


Journal and the impact action there had on NUJ organisation in Northern Ireland, the lesson is simple: decide what you want and work out how to get it. Once upon a time, I went to Derry. It was 2008, the beginning of an era


of cutbacks, consultations and culls. Johnston Press had bought the


Journal and announced devastating redundancies. Some were affected by the changes while others weren’t. Would everyone stick together? It was a tale as old as time. My job was to explain the options.


That was easy because there were only two: do nothing and let the employer have its way; or do something and fight. Both could have a negative outcome


but only the second could have a positive conclusion and you’d feel better for trying. Tactics were discussed, posturing moves dismissed and the chapel voted 86.5 per cent to strike. The battle had begun. Management repeated the mantra


that cuts were necessary but couldn’t drown out the ticking clock as the date for action approached. The company backed down. Jobs reappeared and skins were saved. I told this story for years but it took time for the moral to take hold.


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theJournalist | 9 It wasn’t happily ever after just yet.


Journalists continued to go through statutory processes where they had to plead, beg or accept the inevitable. Elaborate matrixes targeted people


for redundancy and divisive processes pitted colleagues against one another. We had to organise. In the beginning,


reps battled frustration and disappointment. They kept going, taking up cases and ensuring no one was alone. Painfully, slowly, numbers increased.


With renewed strength, chapels were able to take collective action. Confidence grew. Solidarity followed the realisation that self-interest was tied in with the interests of colleagues. The story got around. As chapels


These stories show how crucial it is to take a stand. If we do nothing, we become footnotes in someone else’s narrative


shared experiences, the NUJ in Northern Ireland flourished. Chapels became bolder and tougher. At Alpha newspapers, NUJ membership rocketed from 25 per cent to above 85 per cent as journalists shared stories about shocking levels of pay and inequality. Chapels lodged a 14.5 per cent pay claim and demanded recognition. Six newspapers voted, with almost 100 per cent support, for a three-day strike last April. Alpha chapels won a deal


where pay will rise by 30 per cent on average and, for the first time, there is an incremental salary scale and union recognition.


In tandem with that


battle, Johnston Press announced more cuts. But this time we had more numbers to mobilise and take a stand. Renewed anger, 95 per cent membership and


resounding support for action led to notice of a strike. The company compromised. Most staff will get pay rises of between six per cent and 22 per cent and better redundancy deals. At the Belfast Telegraph, the chapel secured contracts and paid holidays for shift workers. The battle was led by new chapel officers who had heard of fights won elsewhere. These stories show how crucial it is


to take a stand. The NUJ’s “Organising to Win”


pamphlet, a compilation of stories published over a decade ago, inspired the Alpha chapels. We must update it with recent successes. Our collective history must be recorded so we have the maps for a better future. We are not dealing in fairy tales but


living history. Each new chapter informs the next. There can be no definitive happy ending because the fight must always go on.


Nicola Coleman was an NUJ organiser


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