obituary
when he was the rep for NUJ staff.” David Ayrton, NUJ chapel chair,
described him as a ‘committed and outstanding’ union official. “Many of us, not least myself, were trained and educated under Barry’s stewardship and for that we owe him a great debt of gratitude. Barry served as NUJ officials’ father of the chapel some considerable time before I would take the post. Barry was a tough taskmaster for those like myself who were working under his authority. He was, nevertheless, always ready to give advice and guidance. He made it clear to me that should I make any mistakes, as long as I reported them instantly to him, then he considered them to be his own mistakes and would quickly rectify them. Obviously, had I not informed him of any such errors then he would not have been best pleased!” Séamus Dooley, NUJ assistant general secretary, pointed out that Barry enjoyed ‘the rough and tumble’ of negotiations, proving himself to be ‘blunt, direct and determined’. Said Seamus: “He brought those qualities to the NUJ at a time when the union was engaged in challenging negotiations on collective agreements.” Mirror journalist Paul Routledge
Barry Fitzpatrick
Barry Fitzpatrick, former deputy general secretary of the NUJ and hugely respected union official, died on September 17 at the age of 82 of pneumonia and renal failure. He leaves a wife Jane and three grown-up children: Lily, Gareth and Neil.
Born in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, Barry’s mother was a single parent, who often worked as a cleaner to keep her family of six together. Barry went to grammar school,
then into apprenticeships and on to the Sunday Times, joining the paper’s NATSOPA clerical chapel. He became FOC of the chapel,
leaving Times Newspapers in 1982/83 when he was elected as a full-time officer of the London clerical branch of SOGAT 82, shortly after merger with NATSOPA.
26 | theJournalist
Eventually he took his formidable skills to the NUJ where he succeeded Jeremy Dear as the senior official responsible for newspapers. Jeremy, who became the NUJ’s general secretary, describes him as ‘a legend’. Said Jeremy: “Some in the union opposed his appointment, arguing that he was ‘too much of a print union bureaucrat’ and too old, given that the union was trying to attract younger journalists. He absolutely proved all those people wrong. He not only brought us a level of experience and skill in negotiating none of the rest of us could ever emulate, but he was extremely patient and a great educator for younger reps. I also got to see his skills up close – while negotiating with employers and also as the employer
knew him during his days at Times Newspapers: “He was well- respected by the members and rather less so by management who had to deal with his wily skills. He had an office in a Thomson building over Grays Inn road from The Times, with a desk, a leather settee, a telly and a fish tank. As I recall, as a lowly NUJ FoC, I had only a metal filling cabinet. “I once marvelled at his comfortable office, and he said :’Yeah, can’t last, can it?’ And it didn’t. But I always thought that, unlike some print union officials, he liked the company of hacks. Indeed he was a journalist manque. So it was no surprise to me that he made the leap to become an official of the NUJ. He belonged with us. He found his home in the NUJ.” The editor of The Journalist
Christine Buckley benefited personally from his expertise: “I met a lot of union officials as industrial editor of The Times and Barry was one of the very best –
effective, decent, modest, a great person to have on your side – as he was when I was hit by The Times’ traditional annual jobs cull. He ensured I was on full pay during months of wrangling, secured a much-improved pay-off and kept me informed and even amused throughout. When I joined the staff of the NUJ, he was similarly a great colleague.” As the official responsible for
national newspapers, Barry came to The Independent when I was deputy FoC there. He showed himself to be intelligent, calm and very good at his job. He was completely uninterested in the petty political squabbles of the ‘troika’ which represented the Indie chapel. The MoC was an activist in the Socialist Workers’ Party, her deputy (me) a member of the Labour party and the third, a devotee of the-then Social Democratic Party. Barry was only interested in going into bat for the members. Perhaps Brian Williams, former
FoC at the Guardian, should have the last word: “There were times Barry could almost make you feel sorry for anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves on the other side of the negotiating table. Invariably, he was better prepared, impossible to be bullied or bluffed and had an unfailing instinct of knowing when it was time to make a deal because he had extracted every last achievable concession from the employer. “He was kinder to union reps, of course. But it paid to do your homework before you ran an idea past him, as I learned to my cost more than once over cod and chips in the North Sea fish restaurant, a short walk from Headland House in Leigh Street. Get the Fitzpatrick insouciant nod of approval and all was well. A raised eyebrow and withering look, however, meant it was clearly time to have a serious rethink – and offer to pick up the bill as well. “So, farewell old friend – you will be missed by more people than you could ever imagine. And if there is an afterlife, the heavenly management team has my sympathy. They really have no idea what’s about to hit them.”
Barrie Clement
BARRY FITZPATRICK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28
