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London Magazine Branch

April 1999

Make your voice heard

Annual Delegate Meeting: A new mood of optimism

The Liquidator moves in at West Africa

With the branch AGM in April it is time to call last orders on this year's branch officers. It's my job to provide a report on our activities in the past 12 months, and this year we're using the Report to ensure every member of the branch gets a look at this.
Ever the optimist I'm hoping this will persuade a few more people to turn up and maybe volunteer to help run the branch.
The event that has dominated the branch's year has been the dispute at West Africa magazine. I strongly feel that this has illustrated everything that is good about our union. A small group of our members has taken action not only to protest against their terrible pay and conditions, but also to raise the issue of professional standards.

Solidarity

The strength and solidarity with which our members have pursued a protracted and often frustrating dispute is matched by the quality of the skill and knowledge that the team has about African affairs. West Africa has been an important voice in world journalism, and the question of its continued survival has been as crucial as the issue of basic pay and conditions.
I don't think that long disputes that inflict hardship on our members are anything to celebrate, but I will say that it has been a pleasure knowing the chapel over the past year. Their presence has lifted branch meetings, meetings at which they have always stressed their appreciation for the help the union has given them.
As I always reply, this is what you pay your subs for, and we should be thanking them for making the union really mean something. I hope that we will have drawn some new people into participation in the branch through this dispute, and I hope the year's other big event does too.

Fairness at Work

Whatever our views of the government's Fairness at Work legislation, the fact is that it is a significant improvement on what we had before. We need to put in the effort to make it work, and to build campaigning initiatives to improve upon it in the future.
The NUJ nationally has prepared some excellent material and it is now up to every member to draw on the resources and use them at the workplace.
Branch meetings are an important focus for support and advice, as well as making policy, and I hope we will see more workplaces sending delegates every month as people begin to organise where it really matters - at work.
The branch can most accurately reflect your ideas and interests if you turn up to meetings. It's been a hard battle over the past five years or so just to keep the branch going, but the introduction of a regular newsletter, a more modern, informal atmosphere and a convenient and friendly central London venue have all helped.

We need your support

We are quorate most months but we still need a larger proportion of our 2,000 members to attend and make their voices heard. I have been concerned that long-winded political tracts thinly disguised as motions are beginning to find their way back on to agendas. I firmly believe they are off putting for most members, another reason for more people to make their voices heard.
After three years as chair, plus a year as vice chair and another spent as launch editor of the newsletter, I'm stepping down after the AGM. It is time for someone else to take a spell at the helm and to keep things fresh - and I would also welcome a break. I'll still be around at meetings, though unconstrained by the need to be an unbiased chair...

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Signs of a revival at the grassroots of the NUJ brought a mood of confidence to this year’s annual delegate meeting in Eastbourne.
Discussion on and off the conference floor focused on the chapels being set up or re- formed as new members are recruited, joining not in ones or twos but a dozen or so at a time.
The proposed ‘fairness at work’ legislation has triggered a revival in activity at chapel and branch level because of the opportunities it opens for winning union recognition.
General secretary John Foster told delegates: ‘This is the first opportunity we’ve got, the first step to establishing employment rights.’
Chapels including Emap Healthcare and Reed Business Information are already campaigning for re-recognition of the NUJ, and the magazine and book sector has seen new chapels formed, including one at Lippincott Williams Wilkins. 

New organisers appointed

This shift in our union was obvious in the debate over a motion to find ways to ‘de-mystify’ the union and present new members with something other than ‘tedious business’.
Many delegates were struck by the idea behind the proposal — that our union must adapt its organisation to the fact that it is growing, after so many years of union busting and retreat.
New organisers have also been appointed at NUJ headquarters to go out and build the union.

Branch stalwart Chris Wheal shagged out
at Beachy Head after yomping and biking
99 miles along the South Downs way to
ADM at Eastbourne. Union charities were
£1,000 richer thanks to his sponsors.

But there’s no guarantee that we’ll win our rights without a fight. Delegates reported mixed responses from employers to the proposed law. At least one large employer has told the union it will recognise the NUJ after the employment rights Ú bill becomes law and others have begun, for the first time, to respond to letters from NUJ chapels. The chapel at the Birmingham Post and Mail has set a brilliant example by securing a good pay rise — negotiated with a company that formally does not recognise the union.

Employers step up attacks

But elsewhere, bosses have been gearing up for the new legislation by attacking union organisation and victimising activists. The ADM heard from Dave Toomer, victimised Father of Chapel (FoC) at the Bolton Evening News and chair of the Newsquest group chapel, who introduced a debate on the detail of the proposed law.
The motion passed recognised the opportunities the new law will give us, but called for a number of amendments to secure more comprehensive union rights than the government’s proposals offer. It reinforced the NUJ’s long-standing policy for the repeal of all anti-union legislation.
Dave, who pointed out that despite his victimisation, a new FoC had been elected and his chapel was continuing to organise, was awarded an NUJ gold medal in recognition of his stand for union rights. He was also elected vice-president of the union.
Also awarded a gold medal was Greg Challis, victimised FoC at the Sheffield Evening Star.
He introduced discussion on a resolution condemning Regional Independent Media for its union-busting and job cutting operation, details of which were leaked to the union. The documents show the firm wanted to get major redundancies out of the way before the new law came in. Delegates also heard about the company’s strike-breaking plans.
Another stand for jobs and workers’ rights — that of the West Africa magazine chapel — won a standing ovation from conference. The whole chapel took to the stage as FoC Themon Djaksam outlined their year-long campaign of weekly strikes (see below).
London magazine branch’s motion congratulating the West Africa strikers was passed unanimously.
The branch’s motions on childcare and copyright were also carried at ADM, while those on unemployment and union subs were defeated. The conference resolved to increase NUJ subs by 10%, but the threshold under which members pay a reduced contribution of 0.5 per cent of gross income was raised to £12,000 a year. This means more low-paid members will benefit from cut-price subs.

The wider picture

Every delegate was on their feet again to applaud Neville Lawrence, father of murdered black teenager, Stephen. After a very moving speech, the conference passed a resolution which called for the resignation of Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Condon.
Striking nurses from University College Hospital and the Middlesex hospital in London also won support from the conference. They are fighting a private finance initiative scheme which involves the transfer of hundreds of ancillary workers to a private company. A collection raised £250 from delegates for their strike fund.

Watch it Rupert

The upbeat mood of the conference was brought home yet again in the sector meetings, where delegates were able to report on chapel activities in more detail.
The feeling of confidence across the union was reflected by a vote at the magazine and book sector meeting to call on the union to organise a mass recruitment leafleting session at a workplace where, despite huge attacks in the past, the NUJ is beginning to grow again, to coincide with the second reading of the employment rights bill.
Where will the leafleting be? At Rupert Murdoch’s Wapping plant. The NUJ is coming back.

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West Africa Publishing Ltd has gone into receivership.
On 24 March the High Court ordered the company to be wound up for non-payment of VAT and National Insurance. The judge said there seemed little hope of a promised cheque for £400,000 arriving from the controlling shareholder, the Nigerian government.
After a year of striking at least once a week over unpaid wages, appalling pay and conditions and management's refusal to recognise the NUJ, staff are angry and bitter at their treatment. 'Despite the Nigerian government's numerous statements about its intention to privatise West Africa, it is clear that there is now no chance of the government helping us,' said father of chapel Themon Djaksam.
An administrator had yet to be appointed as the Report went to press, but West Africa Publishing has few assets other than its staff: the title itself and its subscription list, and an extensive photo library. The company does not even own its offices, which belong to the Daily Times of Nigeria.
The NUJ has made hardship funds available from the remainder of the £30,000 that the union's National Executive put aside for prosecuting this dispute. The chapel will encourage the administrator to try and find a buyer for the title as a going concern. The impressive pilot issue, Africa 2000, which the NUJ published with the chapel to show how the magazine could be improved with decent resources, may assist in this.
However, the administrator's only obligation is to secure as much money as possible for the primary creditors who took West Africa Publishing to court.
If no buyer is found, it is extremely unlikely that the staff's unpaid wages (back pay, holiday pay, redundancy compensation and payment in lieu of notice) will be covered by the sale of assets. They will then have to apply for their money to the government- run compensation fund, which has a limit on the amount it can pay out to individuals.

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