Rowan Dore on ADM 2005

Report on 2005 Annual Delegate Meeting Scarborough
April 7-10 2005 from Rowan Dore



Jemima Kiss and myself were the two delegates from the Brighton and Mid Sussex Branch.

We maintained a continuous presence on the conference floor for the three day conference and voted on virtually all the 142 motions put to the ADM. We made sure it was known that the Brighton and Mid Sussex was an effective branch representing all aspects of the media in the area.

Although there were no motions from Brighton and Mid Sussex for the 2005 ADM, I spoke on three issues:

• The need for a minimum £25,000 basic salary for all senior journalists

• I supported photographers in their call for a NUJ photographic organiser, who would deal with all matters affecting photographic staff.

• During a debate on a motion urging the NUJ to modernise its logo and rebrand some of its literature I warned the NUJ not to go down this road, citing the experience of The Argus, which has seen falling sales, a drop in advertising and now redundancies following its rebranding.

The minimum £25,000 motion was thrown out on the grounds that some seniors were only getting £14,000 a year and a leap to £25,000 was unrealistic. But there was general agreement that wages in the provincial sector were too low and salaried journalists were now falling behind teachers, nurses and firefighters.

There was a lot of criticism of Newsquest and Gannett for deliberately keeping wages low, especially as parent company Gannett is making profits of around £100 million a year. All senior journalists on the Yorkshire Post have broken the £20,000 pay barrier. The NUJ will continue to press for better pay for journalists.

The call for a photographic organiser was rejected out on the grounds it would cost the union £60,000 a year and would duplicate some of the work done by regional organisers.The idea of re-branding the NUJ by modernising its logo was withdrawn

Jemina, an ADM virgin, spoke up for the New Media Council, of which she is a member and organised a successful and well attended fringe meeting about blogging.

A lot of the ADM was taken up with issues concerning the cut backs and redundancies at the BBC, and how the sacking of thousands of BBC staff, many of them journalists. There was much talk about how this affected programme quality. The NUJ is fighting some of the redundancies and a day of action is planned. Don Mackglew, our regional organiser, asked me "When is The Argus going to have a day of action?". He also was in agreement that we should change our name to the Brighton and Sussex branch.

There was also discussion and debate about low pay in the provincial sector, the organisation of the union, health and safety matters and media freedom.

The union now has 36,000 members across all sections of the media and the numbers are growing daily. General Secretary Jeremy Dear's vision of a well run, campaigning union encompassing all aspects of the media is taking shape.

All union subscriptions are to go up by £5 annually from next Year, which will mean a slight increase in the monthly direct debit. Jeremy Dear said that when he was a delegate he always opposed such increases on the grounds that the union was previously squandering money. "We are now a well run effective campaigning union and to remain an effective campaigning union we need this increase."

It was agreed that the union should look at holding an ADM in Northern Ireland (There are always a lot of Irish delegates attending).

The next ADM will be from Thursday March 23 to March 26 2006 in Southport. Closing date for motions is November 7 and nominations for delegates should be completed by January 23 2006. Judging by the way recruitment to the branch is growing we should be able to send three delegates to Southport and play an important part in the next ADM.

Rowan Dore