Jobs Crisis Omnipresent at July NEC

The unprecedented jobs crisis sweeping through our industry was once again at the heart of NEC discussions at this meeting - the executive's penultimate session before this year's Annual Delegates Meeting in Southport.

I hope you all managed to have some kind of a summer break this year. I confess that my heading of for a much needed breather is one of the reasons this account of the July NEC meeting is arriving rather late. I hope you can accept my apologies for that.

As ever, if any of you have any questions about NEC or anything else NUJ related for that matter, I will always endeavor to help or put you in touch with someone who can.

NEC Meeting Headland House 10 July 2009

Simon Coss – NEC Representative, Continental Europe

Financial Situation

Thanks to rigourous budgeting the Union's finances remain sound but the financial situation is extremely difficult. This is in large part because of the waves of job cuts sweeping through our industry. These are either forcing people to leave the union altogether as they seek work in other areas or obliging them to pay reduced subs.

The General Secretary Jeremy Dear, presented his planned budget for 2010, which,again thanks to rigorous budgeting, was balanced. NEC endorsed the budget plans.

NEC also endorsed a number of motions designed to increase income and reduce costs, which will be put to this year's Annual Delegates Meeting (ADM) of the Union in Southport in November.

The motions call for tough measures, reflecting the tough times we find ourselves in. They include plans for an automatic, annual subs rise of 3 percent or the rate of inflation.

No one is saying that passing such motions will be pleasant, but without them the Union's financial future could be in real jeopardy. So I would ask all of you to support these motions in any way you can.

Recruitment

As ever, this remains the union's top priority. We will only survive by recruiting new members. All members should do all they can on this score. If you are in branches, your officers will be able to help you with recruiting. Members not in branches can contact me, the CEC, your Freelance Industrial Council Rep or head office. Links to all of these can be found on the right hand column of this blog.

One important thing to stress in these difficult times is that no one should feel they have to leave the NUJ because they have either lost their job or have seen their earnings reduced. We are a trade union and that means we believe in solidarity. We stand by our colleagues in good times and bad. If any of you are concerned about being able to keep paying your subs at current rates or whether or not they can stay in the Union, talk to your branches, talk to other NUJ members, talk to head office and it goes without saying you can contact me. We will always be able to sort something out. Above all, no one should feel they must face their problems alone.

State of the Union

The crisis in our industry remains as grim and as vicious as ever. Most of the meeting was taken up with accounts of disappearing freelance work, job cuts, slashed budgets and increasingly aggressive tactics by management. We are clearly not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination. Jeremy described the situation as, “a real crisis”.

Honorary General Treasurer Anita Halpin put the situation in perspective.

“In proportion to our size, we've lost more jobs than any other sector,” during the current economic turmoil, she said

Continental European Matters

I updated the NEC on the recently agreed plans for a temporarily slimmed down Continental European Council (CEC). For the time being the CEC will consist of the chairs of the three continental European branches and three branch delegates.

I also stressed that Brussels branch is now going to be in the front line of the Union's work combating the lies, misinformation and hate speech regularly pedalled by the British National Party (BNP) as BNP leader Nick Griffin is now an MEP. It was agreed to speak to the CEC and Brussels about possibly organising some kind of event in Brussels on reporting the far-right in Europe. It was also stressed that the Union would support anyone working in the press departments of the EU institutions – in particular the Parliament – who did not want to handle BNP literature for ethical reasons.

Following the meeting, Brussels branch stepped up to the plate in no uncertain terms and has organised a speaker debate called

"Covering the Far Right in Europe: Ethics on the line"

It will take place on 29 September.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear is going to moderate. Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) will speak and part of the event will be a launch of his new book on ethical journalism. Other speakers are set to include an MEP speaking, EU policy expert Shada Islam of the European Policy Centre and a high-level journalist.

The CEC and Brussels will send out more info in due course, but I just wanted to put my thanks on the record to Brussels branch for organising this important event so quickly and efficiently.

ADM

As I mentioned earlier, NEC adopted a number of motions that it intends to put to ADM this year, many linked to overcoming the union's financial problems. Since NEC, a preliminary agenda for ADM has been circulated. Those of you in branches will be able to get more info. on that from your relevant branch officers. If any of the rest of you need information on this, I'm happy to help.