Are you registered under the union's new media sector?
David Ayrton at the union's research department is asking for information on new media salaries to contribute to the NUJ Pay Summit in November.
David has asked members to submit details from current or previous new media workplaces, and needs to know:
• starting rates
• what journalists usually earn per month
• number of hours worked
• differentials that may exist in pay between the earning of men and woman.
Please send any details to David by email or to the address below.
David Ayrton, Research and Information, NUJ, Headland House, 308-312 Gray's Inn Road, London. WC1X 8DP
Tel: 020 7843 3745
Mobile: 07734 845 323
Fax: 020 7278 6617
Email: DavidA@nuj.org.uk
More about the New Media council here.
30 August 2005
Grandmothers & eggs
At the risk of teaching the former to suck the latter, this piece was recently posted to another NUJ group and is a useful reference for anyone you know that might need a good definition of a union:
Trade unions are 'associations of workers for the common representation of their interests', dealing in a collective way with issues such as pay, hours and working conditions (Elliott 1973: 464).
Trade unions were created by working people because, as Robert Taylor (1994: 5) explains, 'the worker as an individual in the workplace suffers from having an unequal power relationship vis-à-vis his or her employer'.
Taylor, a longstanding labour correspondent of the Financial Times, continues: 'Only when workers decide for themselves to combine together collectively can they establish enough unified strength to provide themselves with a strong and credible workplace voice to counter the often arbitrary demands being made upon them by the employer.”
One such trade union is the National Union of Journalists, known as the NUJ, which was founded a century ago to represent those whom its first historian described as the 'starveling scribes' of journalism, who were working up to 90 hours a week for 'the paltriest remuneration' (Mansfield 1943).
As well as a national structure with full-time officials and a leadership elected by the members, the NUJ has workplace organisations - called 'chapels' for reasons lost in the mists of time - in which every member at a workplace can have their say.
Trade unions are 'associations of workers for the common representation of their interests', dealing in a collective way with issues such as pay, hours and working conditions (Elliott 1973: 464).
Trade unions were created by working people because, as Robert Taylor (1994: 5) explains, 'the worker as an individual in the workplace suffers from having an unequal power relationship vis-à-vis his or her employer'.
Taylor, a longstanding labour correspondent of the Financial Times, continues: 'Only when workers decide for themselves to combine together collectively can they establish enough unified strength to provide themselves with a strong and credible workplace voice to counter the often arbitrary demands being made upon them by the employer.”
One such trade union is the National Union of Journalists, known as the NUJ, which was founded a century ago to represent those whom its first historian described as the 'starveling scribes' of journalism, who were working up to 90 hours a week for 'the paltriest remuneration' (Mansfield 1943).
As well as a national structure with full-time officials and a leadership elected by the members, the NUJ has workplace organisations - called 'chapels' for reasons lost in the mists of time - in which every member at a workplace can have their say.
26 August 2005
Support Northcliffe workers
From HQ.
Please support your fellow journalists working for Northcliffe Newspapers. The company, despite making £100m profit last year, is planning a massive £25m cuts programme, ironically called Aim Higher.
The aim is higher profits but the plan will mean a worse news service for local communities and worse working conditions for NUJ members as jobs are cut and quality is compromised.
Northcliffe refuse to negotiate with unions. So our members there rely on your support to help save jobs and protect quality. Please paste the message below in to a new email and send it to aimhigher@nng.co.uk
FAO: Michael Pelosi
Managing Director
Northcliffe Newspapers Group
Dear Michael,
I am writing to express my concern at plans by Northcliffe to impose cuts of £25m.
Such cuts will undermine the quality of local journalism and lead to worse working conditions for staff. Staff will lose their jobs, standards will drop and readers will lose out as the cuts bite.
Cutting costs is not the way to achieve your aim of maintaining your market position.
Investing in high quality editorial can help boost readership and win a greater market.
Please support your fellow journalists working for Northcliffe Newspapers. The company, despite making £100m profit last year, is planning a massive £25m cuts programme, ironically called Aim Higher.
The aim is higher profits but the plan will mean a worse news service for local communities and worse working conditions for NUJ members as jobs are cut and quality is compromised.
Northcliffe refuse to negotiate with unions. So our members there rely on your support to help save jobs and protect quality. Please paste the message below in to a new email and send it to aimhigher@nng.co.uk
FAO: Michael Pelosi
Managing Director
Northcliffe Newspapers Group
Dear Michael,
I am writing to express my concern at plans by Northcliffe to impose cuts of £25m.
Such cuts will undermine the quality of local journalism and lead to worse working conditions for staff. Staff will lose their jobs, standards will drop and readers will lose out as the cuts bite.
Cutting costs is not the way to achieve your aim of maintaining your market position.
Investing in high quality editorial can help boost readership and win a greater market.
14 August 2005
July meeting - minutes
1 Present: Gordon Scott, Fraser Addecott, Jemima Kiss, Adrian Colley, Virginia Bridgewater, Huw Williams
2 New members: - several new members admitted to the ranks. Alex Forbes, G Conway R Glazier, Steve F, M Brown
3 Correspondence – issues of Searchlight and Trade Union Friends of Searchlight, Free Press and Black Journalist circulated
4 Officers’ reports – Adrian Colley said we had £1,451.54. The June beach barbie, attended by about 20 people, had cost us just over £100.
5 Subscription to the Zimbabwean. This is a weekly newspaper, based in Britain, set up to publicise news and issues in Mugabe-wrecked Zimbabwe. We back subscribing to the paper for one year at a cost of £42.
6 Aid to Grenada. Further background available on website at www.nujbrighton.org . Basically we were asked to make a donation to the court costs of 17 people locked up in Grenada. Amnesty International says they are political prisoners jailed after the US invasion of the Caribbean country 22 years ago. We agreed to send a cheque for £50.
7 Chapel report: Virginia Bridgewater said morale at the Argus was so low that a recent meeting had been in favour of a strike over new working arrangements now that the Argus is effectively a morning paper. New shift patterns are a significant change to editorial’s terms and conditions. However, after a contract was faxed to NUJ officials it was clear that the right to change working hours is included in employees’ terms and conditions. Therefore a strike could not be justified.
8 Any other business: Jemima Kiss suggested that we take a leaf out of Bristol’s book and buy everyone who turns up at a meeting dinner. Adrian pointed out that could be quite expensive if a lot of people turned up for a meeting and suggested a cap on the amount. Jemima suggested picking a cheap spot, say Picasso’s in Brighton, and a limit of £5.
Discussion then developed into the idea of an Argus Solidarity meeting, given the gloomy scenario presented in Item 7. Jemima said it might be possible to ask NUJ President Jeremy Dear to come down and also strikers from Coventry and someone from the News Shopper, owned - as is the Argus – by Newsquest.
**Secretary’s note: Since then we’ve slightly adopted our stance and want to make this event (in mid-September) a Local Newspaper Solidarity event as it’s not just Argus journalists who suffer from low pay.
2 New members: - several new members admitted to the ranks. Alex Forbes, G Conway R Glazier, Steve F, M Brown
3 Correspondence – issues of Searchlight and Trade Union Friends of Searchlight, Free Press and Black Journalist circulated
4 Officers’ reports – Adrian Colley said we had £1,451.54. The June beach barbie, attended by about 20 people, had cost us just over £100.
5 Subscription to the Zimbabwean. This is a weekly newspaper, based in Britain, set up to publicise news and issues in Mugabe-wrecked Zimbabwe. We back subscribing to the paper for one year at a cost of £42.
6 Aid to Grenada. Further background available on website at www.nujbrighton.org . Basically we were asked to make a donation to the court costs of 17 people locked up in Grenada. Amnesty International says they are political prisoners jailed after the US invasion of the Caribbean country 22 years ago. We agreed to send a cheque for £50.
7 Chapel report: Virginia Bridgewater said morale at the Argus was so low that a recent meeting had been in favour of a strike over new working arrangements now that the Argus is effectively a morning paper. New shift patterns are a significant change to editorial’s terms and conditions. However, after a contract was faxed to NUJ officials it was clear that the right to change working hours is included in employees’ terms and conditions. Therefore a strike could not be justified.
8 Any other business: Jemima Kiss suggested that we take a leaf out of Bristol’s book and buy everyone who turns up at a meeting dinner. Adrian pointed out that could be quite expensive if a lot of people turned up for a meeting and suggested a cap on the amount. Jemima suggested picking a cheap spot, say Picasso’s in Brighton, and a limit of £5.
Discussion then developed into the idea of an Argus Solidarity meeting, given the gloomy scenario presented in Item 7. Jemima said it might be possible to ask NUJ President Jeremy Dear to come down and also strikers from Coventry and someone from the News Shopper, owned - as is the Argus – by Newsquest.
**Secretary’s note: Since then we’ve slightly adopted our stance and want to make this event (in mid-September) a Local Newspaper Solidarity event as it’s not just Argus journalists who suffer from low pay.
12 August 2005
Support Iraq unions
Iraq Union Solidarity is a network of trade unionists and activists set up to help the Iraqi trade union movement.
It is working with TU federations in Iraq. Affiliation is £5. It holds monthly in London. Alternatively join the information e-list by sending a blank email to ius-subscribe@unionlists.org.uk or click on the headline to access their website.
It is working with TU federations in Iraq. Affiliation is £5. It holds monthly in London. Alternatively join the information e-list by sending a blank email to ius-subscribe@unionlists.org.uk or click on the headline to access their website.
11 August 2005
Go back to school
A day school for rank and file trade unionists (that's us!) is being held in London next month. Cost is a tenner, if you're employed.
Sessions include: disputes and how to the win them; pensions; Tesco workers talking on how to make partnerships work; equality; how to support Iraqi trade unions.
It's being held at St Mary's Community Centre in Islington on Saturday September 17, noon to 6pm. Click on the headine for the website.
The branch can help with payment given that we've got a fair amount in the bank. There's a free creche. It's organised by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Click on the headline to access their site.
Sessions include: disputes and how to the win them; pensions; Tesco workers talking on how to make partnerships work; equality; how to support Iraqi trade unions.
It's being held at St Mary's Community Centre in Islington on Saturday September 17, noon to 6pm. Click on the headine for the website.
The branch can help with payment given that we've got a fair amount in the bank. There's a free creche. It's organised by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Click on the headline to access their site.
10 August 2005
Searchlight
August's Searchlight mag, detailing latest anti-fascist activity, available if you want it. Email me and I can put it in the post
09 August 2005
Broadcasting courses
HQ is running two broadcasting courses next month. Radio news presentation is taking place on Thursday September 8 and TV news presentation is on Friday September 9.
If you're in the NUJ, the cost is £155. Do both and you'll pay £275. Click on the headline for the outline of the TV course. The Radio News Presentation outline is at http://www.nujtraining.org.uk/page.phtml?id=1901
These courses will take place at the NUJ Head office, Headland House at
308-312 Grays Inn Road, London. If you are interested in attending please email to training@nuj.org.uk.
If you're in the NUJ, the cost is £155. Do both and you'll pay £275. Click on the headline for the outline of the TV course. The Radio News Presentation outline is at http://www.nujtraining.org.uk/page.phtml?id=1901
These courses will take place at the NUJ Head office, Headland House at
308-312 Grays Inn Road, London. If you are interested in attending please email to training@nuj.org.uk.
07 August 2005
Work at ITN!
In memory of the ITV News Reporter Terry Lloyd, ITN and the NUJ sponsor an annual bursary to allow a journalist to spend six weeks within the ITV News department at ITN.
You must have at least four to six years hands-on knowledge of the industry. You don't need to be a reporter but you will need to have a reasonable broadcast voice, a good understanding of reporting and an understanding of what makes a good TV news package.
This scheme is aimed at those who have a good grounding in journalism gained from grass routes (sic) experience. Applications are welcomed from NUJ members with a TV, print or News Agency background. Unfortunately we cannot accept applications from people at the BBC, ITN or Sky News.
The successful candidate will be given six weeks experience and training at ITN. Applications should consist of a full CV and a covering letter outlining why you should be the successful candidate. You should also submit a proposal for a three-minute report for ITV news. The proposal should be no more than 2 sides of A4 and outline the story, its news value, relevance to the ITV news audience, the way you would tell the story and an overview of the logistics and costs of covering such a story. The story idea can be related to either a home or foreign issue.
All applications to Laurie Carrington, ITN, Human Resources Department, 200 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8XZ quoting reference BUR - 05.
You must have at least four to six years hands-on knowledge of the industry. You don't need to be a reporter but you will need to have a reasonable broadcast voice, a good understanding of reporting and an understanding of what makes a good TV news package.
This scheme is aimed at those who have a good grounding in journalism gained from grass routes (sic) experience. Applications are welcomed from NUJ members with a TV, print or News Agency background. Unfortunately we cannot accept applications from people at the BBC, ITN or Sky News.
The successful candidate will be given six weeks experience and training at ITN. Applications should consist of a full CV and a covering letter outlining why you should be the successful candidate. You should also submit a proposal for a three-minute report for ITV news. The proposal should be no more than 2 sides of A4 and outline the story, its news value, relevance to the ITV news audience, the way you would tell the story and an overview of the logistics and costs of covering such a story. The story idea can be related to either a home or foreign issue.
All applications to Laurie Carrington, ITN, Human Resources Department, 200 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8XZ quoting reference BUR - 05.
01 August 2005
Justice for Colombia mag
Latest mag available to the first taker. Another horrifying read guaranteed!
Also plugging their Christmas cards early. If you buy JFC cards they get 20 pence for every sale - money it needs to continue its work. However minimum order of 50 does cost just over £80.
Also plugging their Christmas cards early. If you buy JFC cards they get 20 pence for every sale - money it needs to continue its work. However minimum order of 50 does cost just over £80.
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