Motion 149 was carried, instructing the National Executive Committee (NEC) for a change in the law to ensure that if employees are in the midst of a dispute with a company the employer is not allowed to outsource during the dispute. It is a matter of human rights said Leeds branch, proposing the motion. Leeds’ motion 150 aims at making all employers aware of the legal requirement in the United Kingdom which allows trade union representatives to get paid time off to carry out their duties. Guidelines from the legal department will be on the website within the next few days. The motion was passed unanimously. Supporting Our Members Manchester proposed motion 151 which instructs the NEC to give full backing to members who have been discriminated against because of their membership. This motion is present because the branch believes that these members have not always been supported fully – but stress they are not calling for more financial help. It is merely about the way members are treated and welcomed by the NEC. Jeremy Dear of NEC withdrew an NEC amendment to the motion saying that the NEC now better understood the intentions lying behind the motion. He concluded: “It’s not about whether or not we support them it’s always about how we best support them.” The motion was carried. Using Historical Media Campaigns As Examples Using the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike as a platform for motion 152, ADM instructed the NEC to aid the campaign to defend standards in local and regional media. Those in favour told ADM it was appalling to no longer have national coverage of the daily working life of British people. The motion was passed. Late Motions Late motion 2 was proposed by Edinburgh and District branch and calls for support to the campaign in Scotland to fight against the poor handling of the Chamber’s Harrap closure in Edinburgh by the Hachette group. It urges the NEC to do everything it can to to see if at least some part of the redundancies and Chamber’s name and brand as well as skills can be maintained for Scottish publishing. The motion was carried with no objections.

Death toll Motion 141 passed, noting the death toll of media staff throughout the world. It instructed the NEC to support the work of the International Federation of Journalists’ international support committee. The committee brings together the families of killed journalists to lobby for justice and humanitarian assistance in cases where they need long-term support. Support for Russian journalists Motion 142 was also carried, welcoming the launch by the IFJ and the Russian Union of Journalists of ‘Partial Justice’, a report which documents the killings of journalists in Russia between 1993-2009. ADM noted that the report listed: over 300 deaths and disappearances of journalists; and that only a few of the deaths have been properly investigated resulting in killers escaping justice. ADM instructed the NEC to support the Russian union’s campaign to improve the safety of its members and make killing or attempted murder of journalists a more serious offence. Work with Zimbabwe Motion 143 instructed the NEC to continue to develop its work with the Zimbabwean Union of Journalists to help Zimbabwean journalists improve their working conditions. It was carried. Anti-Sikh massacres in 1984 India Motion 147 instructed the General Secretary to write to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, urging the British Government to raise 1984’s anti-Sikh massacres with the Indian High Commissioner. It was carried. Parvinder Singh of Book Branch spoke of how the Indian government believed that the anti-Sikh massacres in November 1984 were a natural reaction to the assassination of India Gandhi. 25 years later none of the key perpertrators have been brought to justice. “NUJ is on the side of the widows in pursuit for justice and it’s high time that the Indian Government come clean,” he said. NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “It is important for all peoples that we seek not just the truth about the events of 1984 and beyond in Punjab but that we also act for justice.”

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Withdrawn motion gets point across Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said yesterday that the union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) would rethink the Training department’s funding in light of new proposals. A motion brought forward to the union’s Annual Delegate Conference (ADM), suggested that the NEC should look into the profit-making possibilities of the training courses. Although the motion had to be withdrawn due to an inaccuracy, Dear said the NEC would have backed it had it gone ahead. He said: “Had the motion been in order we [the NEC] would have supported it. We would have investigated whether or not this was a possibility. “NUJ training has a good reputation. It’s successful, and if we can make it more successful and available to more people then we’ll certainly look at it.” Motion Dear added: “Costs are a massive issue for us. Therefore we have to look at all the costs. But if this is something that could not be a cost but a benefit then we would not only keep it, we would expand it.” The union was looking to cut one member of staff from the department as a cost saving measure. Motion 132 instructed that the NEC should instead “investigate NUJ training operating as a profit centre, marketing its commercial course more aggressively and using its profits to continue providing cheap courses for members”. The motion was withdrawn by the London Magazine branch over a mix-up about how the department’s salaries are funded. However, the principles of the motion will be taken on board. Training Last year the Training department ran 87 courses. 60 were in professional journalist training. The department also organises training for commercial companies and trade union training. The Training department was also responsible for organising the students who have been reporting on ADM. At the moment the union’s commercial training programmes are only advertised in The Journalist and on the NUJ website. One option would be to expand this marketing to bring in more commercial clients. Over the last year commercial clients have included the Magazine company Informa, the Open University, Lexus Nexus and the Cabinet Office. Linda King, the union’s Education and Training Officer, said: “We are getting more and more demand [for our courses] as members are losing jobs. In the current economic climate a way of retaining that membership is through retraining the individuals who have lost their jobs.” We will watch the NEC’s progress with interest. Links (open in new window) NUJ Training London Magazine Branch

National Union of Journalists (NUJ) delegates failed to remove a paragraph from motion 145 that welcomed the Trade Union Congress’s support for a boycott of goods from “illegal Israeli settlement in occupied parts of Gaza and the West Bank”. The motion did not make an Israeli boycott NUJ policy, calling only for the union to call for an end to arms sales to Israel and for the union to go on a fact-fing trade union delegation to Palestine and Israel. The NEC opposed the motion and delegates tried to remove the paragraph but Pat Healy of Standing Orders Committee said the motion had to be taken as a whole. Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour. The concern was that delegates were unaware that the motion would include this paragraph as it had not been printed in the Agenda.

A motion proposed by South Yorkshire branch has instructed the union to take part in a fact-finding mission to Palestine/Israel with other trade unions. Opposition The National Executive Council (NEC) called on delegates to vote for an amendment which would have excluded the NUJ from the next trade union visit to the region. “We want a freedom of action for our trade union that we’ve kept for 100 years and want to keep for another 100,” said one NEC member. Other said they feared for the safety of their colleagues if they joined the delegation. “I for one don’t want our colleagues to be put in danger just because want to nail our colours to the mast for the sake of our conscience,” said one NEC member. Truth But a number of speakers pressed home the importance of NUJ members taking part in the multi-union visit. “The Middle East is not a football match where journalists can hold impartiality,” said David Crouch of the London Central Branch. “We must be on the side of those who suffer most.” And another speaker added: “This is not about taking sides but taking a stand for the truth.” Motion 146, which instructs the NEC to give assistance to journalists facing persecution in Sri Lanka and campaign against denial of basic rights, passed.

The future of the NUJ was put firmly in the hands of the internet last night Delegates at the New Media Conference were shown the findings of a recent study – commissioned by the union – into the creative industries and how that sector could be farmed to increase membership With 900,000 creative industries jobs in the UK, the New Media Industries Council, who were leading the conference, admitted that the NUJ has to embrace these industries. They said the union needed to accept members from them in the same way it changed to embrace the PR division. This would mean potentially welcoming web workers and designers into the union to boost the numbers, as the traditional media declines. Attracting New Media to the NUJ The puzzle is how to convince these digital workers to join, with one blogger, participating online, asking what NUJ could do for them and WHY web workers should join at all. Council member Donnacha DeLong explained there were many issues that the NUJ was already addressing, that were specific to web workers including RSI and legal issues surrounding online comments. “It’s about keeping the channels of communication open. The door to the union has to be open. Lets tell them it’s a great honour to join the union.”

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