ANDREW WIARD
CONRAD LANDIN
Dave Wilson
Dave Wilson was no firebrand when he became father of chapel at the Daily Mail. In fact, management believed he would be a soft touch. However, behind the facade was an indefatigable man of principle. He was also considered one of the best subs on the paper. When they eventually fired him, there was not the slightest pretence it had anything to do with his work – it was all about the threat he posed as a union rep. For the Mail and like-minded organisations, this was a threat of truly historic proportions. The paper provoked Dave’s ire in
1989 when it withdrew recognition from the NUJ and issued personal contracts with a bribe for anyone who signed up. Dave challenged this clear violation of basic rights – a battle that ended 11 years later in victory at the European Court of Human Rights and a verdict that still resonates today. As general secretary Michelle Stanistreet pointed out, it was a fight that took guts and stamina, but Dave dealt with the strain with typical humour and resilience. She said: “He’ll always be a hero to his many friends and comrades throughout the NUJ and the wider movement and will be much missed by us all.” Former deputy general secretary
John Fray added: “It was a long struggle, but Dave with John Foster (then NUJ general secretary) never faltered. It was a very important victory against trade union workplace victimisation.” International Federation of
Journalists treasurer Jim Boumelha 22 | theJournalist
points out that were it not for Dave, the Press for Union Rights campaign which the NUJ and media unions launched in February 1990 would not have got very far. At that time, several NUJ chapels embarked on lengthy strikes against the imposition of personal contracts at Maxwell’s Pergamon in Oxford, Aberdeen Press and Journal, VNU magazines and the Essex Chronicle series, to be joined later by others such as the Lancashire Guardian. None of them was strong enough to push back against hostile employers and it was Dave’s quiet and, he insisted, ‘moderate’ approach that started unravelling the strategy. When Dave started the campaign
against personal contracts, he had been a news sub for 12 years, three of them in Manchester, previously working at the Sheffield Star. The 203 members of the Daily Mail chapel started a work to rule on January 24. Although the vast majority were bullied into signing personal contracts, 10 colleagues followed Dave’s lead. Lord Hendy KC represented Dave
in what he described as ‘an 11-year roller coaster’, with numerous legal victories and defeats. “Throughout, Dave was patient, determined, fearless, full of humour,” he said, adding that the European Court judgment was a ‘groundbreaker’ and tens of millions of workers in Europe are in his debt. Dave died aged 70 after a short illness with his family at his side.
Barrie Clement
Ann Coltart
Ann Coltart, who has died aged 82, was an NUJ member of honour and a woman who left an unforgettable mark on everyone who crossed her path. Having joined the union in the early 1960s, she was active until her dying day — drafting NUJ motions and rallying delegates to the Scottish TUC women’s conference in the last week of her life. To Ann’s friends and mentees in the Glasgow branch and the many union councils on which she served, the picture of Ann they will remember will be the same: giving wise counsel and salacious gossip in a pub beer garden after a long meeting, a glass of white wine in one hand and a menthol roll-up in the other. Ann’s encyclopaedic knowledge
of NUJ history was recalled with a serious passion for the labour movement at large and an immense loyalty to her own union — but always tempered with a caustic wit and an unrivalled generosity of spirit. Born in Stockport, the daughter of a police officer, Ann took her first job on the Birkenhead Advertiser. She later moved south where she worked on local papers in London and the Swindon Advertiser. She also lived in a women’s
commune near the Greenham Common peace camp, and served as chair of the Bermondsey Labour Party during the tumultuous 1983 by-election campaign, when Peter Tatchell was subjected to a barrage of homophobia and ‘loony left’ attacks. Ann’s commitment to
equality in the workplace and society saw her face down sexists in the NUJ, and she supported of LGBT rights long before they were a mainstream cause. During this period of her life, Ann
worked primarily in community theatre and adult literacy. Upon moving to Scotland later on in the 1980s to join her then-partner — a Herald journalist — she struggled to find work in these fields, and returned to journalism as a freelance. She wrote features for the Herald and other newspapers, often profiling pioneering projects such as the Glasgow Women’s Library. She threw herself back into NUJ activity and was a regular delegate to Scottish TUC conferences. In 2001 she was recognised with an award from the STUC women’s conference, for her work for the movement and women in Scotland at large. As well as her long spells on the
union’s equality, disabled members’, Scottish executive and 60+ councils, Ann served on the national executive council and appeals tribunal and as a trustee of NUJ Extra. With Glasgow branch asylum
seeker members, she was involved in the conversations with the Scottish Refugee Council that led to the establishment of the Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards, which recognise fair, accurate and responsible journalism on refugee and asylum seeker issues. She is survived by her daughter Rebecca and her huge union family.
Conrad Landin
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