union activity


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health and safety checks were needed on our equipment (typewriters) and we wouldn’t lift a finger until this was done. This was accepted with more equanimity from our non-union colleagues than you would expect. We didn’t fall out with any of them and when the dispute was over we were all mates again. Again, this was just what happened. What point am I trying to bulldozer ineptly into your


consciousness, beyond the fact that everything was better in the good old days? Simply this: as union members, we have fallen out of the


habit of being organised. Of everyone being expected to play a part in union life. Of young journalists rubbing shoulders in the office and then… sorry, I digress. It’s always been difficult to find those people who are


essential for effective union work: the chapel and branch organisers, chairs, secretaries and treasurers who do the donkey work and keep everyone moving in the same direction. So many of those I’ve met took the job only because no one else would and stayed doing it for years because no one else showed willing. In recent years, these activists have become harder to find.


I’ve noticed entire chapels fall into inactivity and fold because a single leader moves on and is not replaced. In south-west England, our new region-wide branch was formed a year ago because, out of the dozen or so branches that existed here about 20 years ago, only one could muster enough activists to hold regular quorate meetings. It is not really surprising. Britain is a much less unionised place than it was in the 1980s. So many offices no longer exist. So many employees on the payroll don’t meet each other – and so many more members are freelance, with no colleagues at all. What troubles me, as an old fart about to step down from his union roles next year, is that perhaps the most important thing we have lost is the expectation that each and every union member will be called upon to DO something to help run chapel life. Perhaps not necessarily be as an elected official but assisting with a social, attending meetings as a matter of course and being ready to take part in industrial action when it is democratically called. I’m not calling for a return to all our old ways. I can’t see


our work-to-rule practice being accepted nowadays, and I can’t really defend it. But the notion that we all have a part to play in our union needs more attention. So many members I speak to tell me that they regard NUJ membership as an ‘insurance policy’. They regard the subs


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Many people who advise members and listen to their account of how dreadfully they have been treated are volunteers


they pay as a fee for the help they will need if they face redundancy, a disciplinary or a legal problem. I can see the logic of that. But what they cannot see is that their subs are not fair recompense for their ‘insurance’. Sure, when the bombshell lands in their working life, they may well have recourse to one of our almost unbelievably hardworking and dedicated paid officials. And excellent help they will receive. But the NUJ’s paid staff comprises just 42 people, serving a membership of more than 20,000. The staff can’t and they don’t provide all the help that is given to members. So many of the people who accompany members to their


disciplinary meetings, advise them on their redundancy offer, organise the branch meeting at which they air their views and listen to their account of how dreadfully they have been treated by their employer (and, increasingly, how it has impacted their mental health) are volunteers. Not paid, not a penny, beyond perhaps some expenses. That doesn’t mean that we begrudge our efforts. Far from it. I see it as a privilege and an honour to be trusted to support members in their hour of need. Thanks to the excellent training the NUJ provides in welfare, health and safety, employment law and the rest, I regard the support work I’ve done with members as the most important and rewarding work I’ve done in my life. Reading this back makes me feel pompous as well as an old fart. So be it. But if the NUJ is to continue offering excellent personal and professional support to its members on demand, it will need a few more of those members to step up and provide their colleagues with just a little of their time.


Paul Breeden is the chair of the NUJ’s south west England branch


MARK THOMAS


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