London Magazine Branch Newsletter: June

London Magazine Branch

June 2000

Back to main page

 

 

Refugees are welcome:
racists aren't

Tony Benn MP and Bruce Kent have congratulated London Magazine Branch for its role in launching an anti-racist statement that condemns the disgraceful treatment of refugees by the government and the media. They were speaking at a 1,000-strong public meeting in Camden Town Hall in May.

The branch had a stall there (and recruited two journalists to the NUJ). Thousands of people have put their names to the open letter since it was launched at the NUJ's Annual Delegate Meeting in April. The statement has been signed by six union general sectretaries, including John Edmonds of the GMB and Bill Morris of the TGWU.

Several thousand pounds has been raised to place the statement as an advert in the Guardianand Daily Mirror.

Anti-racist organisations have called a national demonstration on 24 June in central London (Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1pm). The frightening competion between Jack Straw and William Hague to see who can be the most abusive to refugees has already seen a dramatic rise in racist attacks.

The government's latest "initiative" - patrolling French railway platforms to weed out refugees - makes it clear that the issue is no longer even one of "deserving" or "unqualified" refugees. The British state simply doesn't want to abide by its commitment to the UN convention on refugees.

Straw's declaration that "too many" refugees are reaching Britain is bizarre: since when has a British Home Secretary been in a position to declare that the number of wars, coups and prison camps in the world must immediately be reduced to a "managable level"?

Print out the statement
List of signatories
Facts and fabrications about refugees
Countering racist reporting

Time to go to
school with
the NUJ

Why a union-run training course could change your working life . . .

HOW many articles have you read this week about how the internet is transforming traditional publishing companies? But how many of them explained where this new workforce is going to come from - or at whose expense?

Of course employers should be equipping their staff with the skills required (after all, the gains from the introduction of new technology have flowed overwhelmingly to our employers). But many companies aren't doing this and, in any case, what about freelances (many of whom aren't freelance by choice)?

Enter the NUJ. We may not have considered professional training to be a key role for our union in the past. But it certainly is now.

We have invited the NUJ's training officer Linda King to our June branch meeting to tell members what courses the union is already running - and to ask you what courses you want organised.

For a list and brief description of the courses running over the next few months click on the link below. What subjects do you think the union should be covering - libel law, design, web publishing, negotiating, chapel organising? If you can't make the meeting, you could still contact Linda King directly .

Training courses dates and descriptions

Time to make
the law work

New faces, new chapels and the biggest turn out for months distinguished May's branch meeting. Why? Because the subject at hand was recognition and recruitment - the issue that, more than any other, connects members to the union.

NUJ national organiser Jeremy Dear gave a rundown of what our new rights are and recounted the experiences of workplaces across the country which are reporting new recruits and even signing recognition deals. And in the discussion which followed, members swapped practical suggestions for how to organise, and picked up valuable information about how to use the NUJ's resources.

Jeremy also pointed out that NUJ general secretary John Foster had written to all NUJ sectors asking that recruitment and recognition issues be prioritised, as this year's annual conference decided it should be. Magazine Branch will be following that example, with the emphasis at branch meetings from now on firmly on practical help and advice for ordinary members.

We're asking every member to try and make sure someone from your workplace comes along to branch every month. That's the best way to establish contact and to discuss exactly what you need in your situation. (Of course, you can also phone any of the named individuls on the contacts page if you can't make it).

Make the branch your first port of call: that way we can tailor union resources exactly to your needs and ensure you don¹t fall foul of some of the more complex requirements of the new legislation.

This is our best chance for years to improve our working lives. You only need look at some of the deals recognised workplaces such as the Financial Timeshave secured to see what is to be gained (see below).

It's true that these new laws fall short of what's needed, and next month's Reportwill outline the improvements the NUJ is to push for, but for now it's important we reap the benefit of what's on offer.
-- Martin Cloake, deputy chair


This is the difference
a union makes

The agreement between the Financial Times and the NUJ chapel includes:

PAY A minimum pay rise of 3.75% from 1 January 2000;
WORKING WEEK Day workers 40 hours, night workers 35 hours;
HOLIDAYS Basic six weeks' holiday plus bank holidays plus time off in lieu for any work over 40 hours in a week (normally taken within 28 days);
REDUNDANCY Four weeks' pay per year of service up to £100,000. All staff get three months' notice;
SABATICALS Four weeks' "staff development" leave after each four years worked;
NON-STAFF WORKERS on short-term contracts get the same conditions pro rata as fulltimers;
PREGNANT workers get LCD screens instead of CRTs;
EXTRA PAY for survey articles and non-routine work.


Our rights @ work

These are the main rights we have gained from the Employment relations Act 1999.

1. Union recognition Employers must recognise the NUJ if the union can demonstrate that 50%-plus-one of the workforce are members or if it wins a ballot.

2. Industrial tribunals The qualifying period for unfair dismissal and other claims to an industrial tribunal is one year's employment, down from two, and the maximum award has been raised to £50,000.

3. Maternity leave Minimum leave increased from 14 to 18 weeks after one year's service (down from two years) and additional leave of up to 40 weeks.

4. Parental leave Three months' leave (may be unpaid) taken in one-week blocks over five years for workers with children born after 15 December 1999.

5. Protection for union reps Increased protection for trade union representatives, making it easier to take cases of discrimination against them by an employer to an industrial tribunal. (Health and safety reps also have considerable legal protection, although they have not gained any more specifically from new legislation.)

6. Industrial action All workers involved in official industrial action, including strikes, gain legal protection for the first eight weeks of the action.

7. . . . And coming in September The right to be accompanied by a trade union rep to disciplinary or grievance hearings even at companies where no union recognised.

 
In this issue

Training courses
Legal rights @ work
FT agreement
Recruitment
Iranian journalists
The Cambridge 2

 

D-Day for NUJ

The NUJ will mark 6 June - the day our legal right to union recognition comes in to force - by delivering a box of claims to the new body responsible for settling re-recognition disputes, the Central Arbitration Committee.

The first wave will include the Independent, Stoke Evening Sentinel, Daily Record, Sunday Mail, the Scotsman, Croydon Advertiser, Sheffield Star and South London Press.

Among the magazine publishers, Reed Business Information and and the "Emap entity formerly known as Healthcare" will be early targets.

 

First victory

The first chapel to use the new law to regain union recognition has won a resounding victory. Of 99 journalists balloted at the Bradford Telegraph & Argus 84 backed the return of the NUJ, which was derecognised by management five years ago.

The NUJ's North of England organiser John Toner called it "a stunning vote of confidence in the NUJ. Our members have backed us but, equally important, many non-members voted for us too."

 

Growing stronger

The NUJ is growing at its fastest rate for 20 years. In the past 12 months we have made a net gain of 1,200 new members. The NUJ is now 32,876 strong. London Magazine Branch gained 154 members in the course of 1999, take us to 2,187.

 

Unjustly jailed

Jailed for refusing to break a promise of professional confidentiality to people that you work with. No, not journalists this time, but the case of the Cambridge Two is extremely relevant to journalists.

Our May branch meeting was addressed by a representative of the Cambridge Two defence campaign. Ruth Wyner and John Brock were jailed for five and four years because they refused to name homeless people who may have been dealing drugs. The two worked at the Wintercourt day centre charity for the homeless in Cambridge.

The judge accepted that the pair had not been involved in any way in drug dealing but ruled that confidentiallity was not a defence in law for failing to contact the police if someone had a suspicion that a crime may have been committed.

Some judges think journalists have a duty to the police that outweighs any commitment to protecting sources. Observer journalist Martin Bright is still facing the threat of jail for refusing to hand over notes relating to a story about ex-MI5 spy David Shayler.

www.cambridgetwo.com
01223 513033

 

Repression in Iran

The branch has invited a representative of Iranian journalists in this country to speak on deepeing repression against the press in Iran.

In April, the government closed down three weeklies and a monthly for printing material that "disparaged Islam". In fact, the titles had been exposing a series of killings carried out by Iran's intelligence service and vote rigging by a conservative faction during elections earlier this year.

The month before, an attempt on the life of the editor of Sobh Emrouz- a reformist tilte - left him hospitalised. And three reformist journalists, Akbar Ganji, Saffari, and Shams al-Vaezin,have been arrested.

Meanwhile, Iran's broadcasting authority, which is under the direct rule of Iranís supreme leader Khamneii, has been used extensively to build religious hysteria against reformist papers and those protesting at electoral fraud.
Return to top