Comments for NUJ Policy

Comment on Roy Greenslade’s blog by Bro Chris Youett

Bro Chris Youett — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:07:26 +0000

I WAS saddened to read Bro Greenslade’s comments because the record shows that the NUJ is more progressive than most employers. Not only were we the first to gain equal pay for our sisters, but we were the first to get fax machines installed, we tried to get word processing members desks 30 years ago, the NUJ was probably the first union to appoint a technology officer, we were cetainly the first union to hold meetings for journalists using new technology in 1978, we supported broadband and other high speed links years before the bosses even learned how to spell those words, automation in local radio newsrooms, etc, etc, etc

Comment on Taking a break by johninnit

johninnit — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:42:39 +0000

Have a good trip, Rosie!

Comment on News round-up: BBC bloggers wind up their campaign and NUJ website revamp by Martin Cloake

Martin Cloake — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:23:43 +0000

While that’s largely good news, it’s very hard not to be incredibly irritated by the self-important posturing of these people. Translation: “We find it difficult not to exaggerate the importance of the fact that we disagreed with some other people in the NUJ, so we will continue to inflate it as a point of principle. We know for a fact that most other people in the NUJ are stupid, and that they will bombard next year’s ADM with motions we consider irrelevant. Although we’ve spent a lot of time complaining about this, we’ve now decided we are in fact too busy to participate in union affairs, so we’ll continue to criticise everyone who does make the time. Until the next time we object to something, when we won’t be too busy to tell the world how stupid and useless the NUJ is.”
Absolutely astonishing arrogance and lack of any self-awareness.

Comment on NUJ Policy gets its 1,000th hit by johninnit

johninnit — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:59:46 +0000

Happy 1,000th Hitday, Rosie! May the next 1,000s come in even quicker.

Comment on US news anchor direct action by rosieniven

rosieniven — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:27:25 +0000

Mika rocks. I don’t think that it undermines her impartiality. She is not saying she hates Paris Hilton or opposes the Iraq War (although some might argues that her actions suggest that!) she is making an editorial judgement (albiet one that clashes with her editors), which is what you are paid to do. I would see it as her standing up for quality journalism, her editors might see it as being unprofessional. It’s great telly though.

Comment on Monday’s debate: summary by Edited highlights of “In or Out” speeches « NUJ Policy

Edited highlights of “In or Out” speeches « NUJ Policy — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:42:28 +0000

[...] union’s involvement in wider political issues. For more information on this debate view the post on the [...]

Comment on Is the boycott exposing ‘hole’ in union democracy? by Andrew Neeson

Andrew Neeson — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:48:07 +0000

Ironically the more union work I do at work the less I go to branch meetings!

I was once on the MABIC committee and it was the most boring meeting in existence. I’m sorry to say that, but I had to quit because I just couldn’t take it. At one point we had a report back from NUJ conference, and when I pointed out that every member in the room had gone to conference so knew what happened, I was told we still need to discuss it because it was on the agenda.

How do you generate interest in branch structures when I can barely get union members to attend chappel meetings over pay? Our latest pay round just half of member voted and all they had to do was return an email saying accept or reject!

I think this is a larger issue among the union to raise the importance of the union among people. We are living on the back of huge defeats and people are less likely to feel the union is an integral part of their working life. We need to change this opinion and that is no easy task. Often it is only at time of hightened industrial unrest that people begin to see the union as having key relevance – which ain’t going to help us now. What we need is a general strike to get the union back on track :p

I support the Israeli boycott, as I would support journalists boycott of South Africa during apartheid. However, the problem is not the motion and democracy – as all other less controversial issues would have been voted on without a word being said – but about people being a bit aggreived at the collective decision.

Of course if people have ideas of trying to engage more members into union activity, obviously a good thing. But suggesting that the union’s political positions is what is putting people off, as has been suggested in some quarters recently, is in my opinion completely missing the point about what is wrong with the union. As for democracy, if people don’t think that enough people are active to enable us to make decisions – which is effectively what the stop the NUJ boycott is saying – than that means that the NUJ should cease working immediately until this changes.

Comment on Monday’s debate: summary by Martin Cloake

Martin Cloake — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:51:50 +0000

There’s clearly a message here, and one that it may surprise some people to know I agree with. And that is, too often too many parts of the union confuse passing motions with winning the battle of ideas. I think this debate can be very valuable in demonstrating the advantage of taking robust, sustainable, achievable positions and not simply posturing. But I also think there is a great danger that another view is being smuggled in here – the view that says we should adopt a purely isolationist position and pretend nothing is happening outside journalism.
Even this is an unsustainable position – as one person’s political campaign is another’s vital industrial issue. You simply cannot define what is ‘an industrial issue’ and what is ‘a political issue’ as clearly as some people seem to think. Any attempt to do so would lead to complete paralysis as we debated whether or not we should debate ad infinitum.
And I’ve also got to repeat what I’ve said at every stage of this debate – people don’t object to ‘political stances’ as much as political stances they don’t agree with. Let’s be honest about what we’re saying and stop trying to disguise opinions as great points of irrefutable principle.
I don’t want to be in a union that shuts its eyes to the wider world – especially when unions are one of the only organisations we have left now the political parties have either effectively merged or colonised the outer extremes. But equally I don’t want to be in a union that passes lofty motions on world affairs while many members can’t even be bothered to take advantage of the legal right to TU recognition.
We do need to get the basics right in order to do the more complex stuff – but both are what trade unions have done for hundreds of years.
There’s a huge amount of nonsense being pedalled about ‘compromising our impartiality’ and establishing clear dividing lines between one sort of policy and another. Trade union politics, like life, doesn’t come in neatly divided boxes. We have to deal with issues as they arise, mostly too many issues in too short a time. That’s life too. We debate, we decide, we move on – isn’t that what democracy is all about? Or is democracy only democracy when we get our own way?

Comment on The future of the union: discuss by Donnacha DeLong

Donnacha DeLong — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:15:31 +0000

1. Convergence/integration definitely – stupid bosses panicking about the future leading to a decline in quality across the board. Work by the Multimedia Commission is underway though and this will hopefully form the basis of the future work of the union, as well as provide help and information for members.
2. More recruitment in the new media sector – the New Media Industrial Council can only do so much, we need every member of the union to think about this. It’s a sector with massive untapped potential membership, but it’s outside the historic base of the union and most people don’t realise the NUJ is for them. We need members to think about the designers, web content people, etc. that they might know (through work and/or socially) and see if they can recruit them.
3. Alas, not very much as my workplace is a T&G recognised workplace and the best the NUJ can hope for is a joint membership agreement with the T&G.

Comment on Is the boycott exposing ‘hole’ in union democracy? by rosieniven

rosieniven — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:09:14 +0000

A facebook group has been set up for the Stop the NUJ boycott blog.