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.