Informed 03


bank holiday weekend. By Sunday we agreed an offer of 6 per cent and 3 per cent as one that warranted suspending the action and taking back to members. A consultative ballot of members at AL Jazeera is now in train. Tese are just two recent examples of the nity grity industrial work that really maters to our chapels and our members. It is the reason the NUJ needs commited officials and a strong organised lay activist base. Decisions taken by the union’s delegate meeting included a refusal to agree a subs rise – meaning that by the time DM reconvenes in 2020, the union will have gone 6 years without a rise in our income. Te NEC had pitched the rise at 50-60 pence a month in order to minimise the individual impact whilst collectively raising our income by £300,000 over the next two years. Te last financial crisis – and the painful steps that had to be put in place to solve it – demonstrated clearly what happens when we stand by and allow our income to erode. We commited then, under the


Recovery Plan, to rebuild our reserves to £2million, to ensure staff costs do not rise above 45 per cent of our subs income alongside other measures to preserve our financial and political independence. Te NUJ’s culture is different to many other unions – the kind of individual representation and support we provide, vital to our freelances as well as staff members in unrecognised workplaces, simply wouldn’t happen elsewhere. Commitments were made by activists


arguing against a rise to prioritise recruitment as the solution to increasing income and I look forward to engagement from reps and activists to achieve this in the coming months. Te reality is that we will have to cut our cloth accordingly and the work for the next budget round will start soon. It is disappointing to be in this position once again but as general secretary my priority will be to work with all three staff unions and the NEC to ensure we manage this challenge with as minimal impact on staffing levels and on industrial servicing as we can.


Democracy in action


Tim Dawson, out-going president, tries to distil the essence of NUJ activism


“What does the NUJ look like?” asked my then seven-year-old daughter Lucy as I was seting off to yet another meeting some years ago. I managed to mumble something about “shared values of press freedom and workers’ rights”. Lucy’s was a typical primary school category mistake. Te NUJ was frequently evoked to explain my absence and she reasonably assumed that it must be something as straightforwardly describable as her school, Disneyland, or the local swimming pool. She is 14 now and has since visited the office, marched behind an NUJ banner and sat through rather too many of my union-related meetings. Our headquarters, industrial work and ceaseless advocacy for journalism are all integral elements of our union. Until now, however, a single, simple image with which to respond to her question has eluded me. Now, having spent more than 20 hours conducting our Delegate Meeting from the chair, I believe I have that answer. Te shared truth- affirming, passionate, sometimes raucous assembly that I sweated to steer towards democratic agreement is what the NUJ looks like. I don’t mean the collage of suits, slogan t-shirts and varied fashions that are the conference’s physical manifestation. Te essence of the NUJ can be found in what our bi-annual gathering represents. We journalists have always disagreed – about priorities, strategies and desired outcomes. Tat is why we have a rule-based democracy in return for collective power seen throughout the NUJ in branches, chapels and governing councils. But nowhere is it more clearly displayed than the disputatious parliament that is our DM.


Other union’s


conferences are different. I have atended those of teachers, refuse operatives and engineers and, for understandable reasons, the leaders manage their get-togethers. Scores of motions are composited into a few bland statements. Our DM, by comparison is like something from the Wild West. Hundreds of motions are considered – just as they were writen by our branches. Most speeches are delivered off the cuff.Tempers can flare and heckling is not unknown. As journalists, could we have it any other way? In Southport, we made 200 decisions, including a useful revision of our position on press regulation, but a woeful error in rejecting a subscriptions increase. Every time delegates raised their hands to express their views, they affirmed the voluntary collectivism that is at the NUJ’s heart. Tat is not to say that our proceedings can’t be improved. Te first motion adopted called for a more effective and modern DM and I would prefer more delegates who took our finances seriously and fewer enthusiasts for sloppily writen motions with litle relation to journalism (most of which were rejected). But I accept the DM’s decisions because that will is at the heart of our trade unionism. No doubt our decision-making will change over time – video conferences and electronic voting may be closer than we imagine. But however different these may appear, I suspect that “what the NUJ looks like” will see out our second century.


No doubt our decision making


will change over time – direct democracy, video conferences and electronic voting may be closer than we imagine. However, I suspect that ‘what the NUJ looks like’ will see out our second century.


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