Strikes are good #1: Tindle Newspapers

Tindle Newspapers journalists working on the company's North London titles, including the Barnet Press, recently took six days' strike action. They were protesting against their workload, the result of the owner of the company not replacing staff as they leave.

Times are hard for the local newspapers business, but Tindle Newspapers, owned by Sir Ray Tindle, is still making a profit. Sir Ray boasts that he has never made people redundant - but that boast was not worth much to our local reporters, sub editors and photographers who were being asked to churn out - that is what it was starting to feel like - title after title with fewer and fewer resources.

The journalists, through their union the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), negotiated for a year with the company, simply asking for one more member of staff, but the negotiations came to nothing. The chapel (that's what the NUJ calls its union branches) took the step of voting to strike. They simply wanted to show that they had had enough; they chose to demonstrate that it is their labour that produces the titles that Tindle is proud to put out in his name.

They struck for six days in April - though they were docked 10 days' pay. Vastly inferior issues of the papers were produced by management in south London. The Tindle strikers' strike was imaginative and won support from the communities they serve, including local politicians. But Tindle Newspapers went quiet. The journalists thought long and hard; the editor came on board in a second ballot for strike action, a vote which again was unanimous in favour.

Tindle Newspapers agreed to talk again, and met the group of NUJ sponsored MPs in Parliament. And, happily, the two sides have now agreed a settlement which ends this dispute - see the journalists' blog for the news:

Following a successful day of negotiations Tindle has agreed to reverse its policy of non-replacement agreeing to a six month moratorium on present staffing levels – guaranteeing that if anyone in editorial leaves over this period they will be replaced. They have also agreed an extra reporter to work for half the week to help out with the current workload. The situation after six months will then be reviewed.

It has also withdrawn redundancy consultation notices issued to staff on the eve of their first walk out.

Jonathan Lovett FOC at North London & Herts Newspapers said: “It has been a long, hard struggle but we are satisfied with the result and now look forward to working together with Tindle to ensure our papers are returned to the quality publications which our readers deserve. We have many ideas for the future of our papers and we look forward to sharing them with the Tindle management across the table.”

This result was achieved through trade union members 'withdrawing their labour', to use the jargon, and showing their employers just how valuable they are to the company. You see, strikes are good.

Save local newspapers - public meeting, 4th July

Enfield hosts the launch of a national, National Union of Journalists campaign on Monday, July 4 to save local newspapers. It starts at 6.30pm at The Dugdale Centre in Thomas Hardy House, 39 London Road, Enfield, EN2 6DS. There will be a range of speakers followed by a Q&A session with The Enfield Nine. All are welcome.

Another day, another trade union struggle

NUJ picket, Bush House (BBC World Service), 5 November 2010

Last night's post might have sounded like I was through with trade unions and all that mallarkey, going back to tending my... vegetable patch? I'm not. One very cheering thought last night was that at least the NUJ's 48-hour BBC strike is going ahead. People were walking out of work from midnight.

The strike is effective. Radio 4 were reduced to repeating rather patriotic programmes about Kitchener, Churchill and birdwatching on the Wash this morning instead of the Today programme.

The strike is about pensions; BBC management are exaggerating the extent of the pensions "black hole" and using it as an excuse to reduce pensions - including the ones that people have already paid into. They don't mention, either, that they took a "pensions holiday" and didn't pay in for several years. Meanwhile, senior executives personally are raking it in.

BECTU, NUJ and Unite unions had voted to strike during Tory party conference: it would have affected coverage of David Cameron's speech. And George Osborne's presentation of the Comprehensive Spending Review. Those strikes were called off, partly under political pressure but also because the management had made an improved (or a less bad) offer on pensions.

Lesson: industrial action can help win concessions.The unions asked their members what they thought of the new offer; BECTU and Unite accepted it (although I think their leaderships didn't give them much of a choice). NUJ rejected, with 70% against, hence today's strikes.

The BBC is under political pressure and has had its budget cut. But that doesn't excuse a raid on people's pensions. Good luck to fellow NUJ members striking today and tomorrow!

Exposing the far-right

I went to an important meeting last night, the launch of the media workers' campaign Expose. This is backed by branches of the journalists' union NUJ and broadcasting union BECTU. The aim of it is to help people working in the media to improve their coverage of the BNP (and other far-right organisations), especially in the run-up to the elections.

The BNP and the NF have been given a very soft ride by some programmes and journalists recently. (You'll only hear otherwise, of course, with the BNP painting themselves as victims of the establishment.) The campaign will provide research resources on the BNP and promote the journalists' code of conduct on how to conduct searching interviews.

Here is a reminder of just what an unpleasant crowd the BNP are: a report by a Times journalist turfed out of the BNP's recent meeting where they voted to allow black people to join.

In the full glare of... police, camera, action

Have just returned from the Isle of Wight where Vestas moved their blades. That wasn't supposed to happen! Well, you can't win them all.

I don't know how many police have filmed me today, too many. I also made the mistake of saying I am a journalist, so then they wanted my NUJ number and to know who I work for, whether I 'follow protests' (no, but I've organised a few in my time).

I don't do much in the NUJ, but I should do more. There is a whole debate there about what is a journalist. I do earn my living from journalism, and could earn a lot more if I did more of the lucrative stuff and less unpaid work covering protests. My aim is to get paid for this work, but that seldom comes off.

Proper journalists, as far as the police are concerned, stand only where the police tell them to stand, take their pictures with big, expensive company cameras, submit expense forms for all out-of-pocket expenses, rather than spending their own money, and, of course, are 'neutral', ie, not emotionally involved with what they are writing about/photographing.

No one is neutral! Worrying mainly about your career, and only writing about what is safe and respectable might keep the police happy but this is not being neutral, this is highly political. The difference is that it is in tune with the dominant political ideas in society.

I hope I can finally work out how to get pictures off my crappy camera phone because I have some great shots of the massive police operation it took to get Vestas blades out today, snapped from the shrubs on the shoreline, where I stood my ground, to the consternation of the Hampshire Constabulary, refusing to go and stand in the press pen.

They couldn't stop me, because I was on a public footpath, but they do have plenty of pictures of me to make sure I don't step out of line in the future.