What a week. What a month. What a job.

It can't be good for anyone to experience the swing in emotions that I have gone through this week. On the other hand it does confirm the fact that I may have been subjected to that old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".


To be fair some of the issues which have made my blood boil have been personal and family orientated, however sticking to work I can honestly say it has been an emotional trampoline. While trying to save the job of a new member at the BBC I received a message that our campaign to stop the deportation of a brave young journalist back to his Gambian homeland had paid dividends. Alieu Cissay had been targeted by no less than the Gambian Justice minister who named the campaigning NUJ member as someone they would "keep a warm welcome reserved for traitors" and similar threats. Along with his wonderful wife and baby son, Alieu is now free to stay in Scotland for another five years under Asylum status and I was overcome with relief, delight and pride in the input of the NUJ in this victory for human rights and journalism.
Unfortunately BBC management decided they wanted rid of my member and sacked him, which was particularly upsetting for the guy and something that left a horrible feeling in my stomach as I am not sure justice has been done and an appeal will be submitted.
Things deteriorated somewhat and as the week progressed it became apparent that the many calls for Trinity Mirror management to stop the planned compulsory redundancies had fallen on deaf ears. Although we had some success in saving a host of jobs and deferring a number of redundancies it was a very sad occasion at Friday's chapel meeting as around 50 people were clapped out of the Record building. Many of these talented journalists had given between 10 and 47 years service, providing images, copy, design and commitment to the titles at Central Quay, helping the company make massive profits, only for the fat cats on the Trinity board to mis-manage and dis-invest in the products. My thoughts and well wishes go with all those now searching for a new future.
Despite the setbacks and upsets the fight goes on for the individual journalists and for the future of the Scottish Press as our interesting times continue at pace.

When is a negotiation not a negotiation?

After two weeks of negotiations with Daily Record & Sunday Mail MD Mark Hollinshead and his team, I needed a rest. My condition was probably exacerbated having had to cancel my flight to Spain an hour before take off with the announcement of the 93 jobs cut.
However at the end of the fortnight at a mass meeting of members in Central Quay I felt we were on the brink of a deal that might have been described as historic.
Both parties had sought a negotiated settlement on what was an ambitious restructuring with large scale job cuts affecting around 40% of editorial staff.
The initial terms on offer were enhanced, certainly better than statutory but nowhere near enough to attract the level of volunteers required. As talks continued we put forward constructive proposals which targeted those most at risk or likely to take the VR package.
Improvements included aggregating part time and full time service for current part time staff, totalling the full time and part time history for calculating redundancy pay.
A number of members had argued they had worked for the company on a casual basis prior to going onto staff and the company appeared to be prepared to add those years into the pot.
We continued to push for an additional sum to round off what we wanted to be seen as a recipe for setting the best voluntary deal possible.
I started to think about getting back on the holiday trail. The best laid plans can go astray and by Monday morning I had learned that the Trinity board of directors had refused to allow their MD to negotiate a deal with NUJ Scotland.
I was told that local talks could not change their central policies and because there were redundancies planned for a variety of Trinity regional offices then we would not be allowed to set a precedent of better terms.
I suggested we could hold national talks, but Trinity's policy was that they do not hold national negotiations. I proposed to Mark that we could call them local talks with a view of reaching an agreement which would not set precedent. Sounds reasonable, I thought, but was then informed the Trinity board were not inclined to hold any talks which might lead to them having to give staff more compensation before they lose their jobs.
There is no doubt this stupidity is poor industrial relations and could cost Trinity more in the long term through legal and industrial action.
There is no logic in any of their behaviour, except their obesession with co-ercion.
Local negotiations have been disabled and national talks rejected, seriously damaging the credibility of senior management to strike a deal and undermining the attempts to maximise the number of volunteers.
It is bad management and poor judgement by "Fat Cats" who regularly reward themselves handsomely for managing the downward spiral of decline. We need to stop this madness unless we are all prepared to see a fast-tracked end to quality newspapers in this country.

Sensitive to criticism

In this week of bombshell size surprises, I am surprised that certain media bosses are surprised at being criticised in a wide range of media about their behaviour in the industrial relations field. Mirror Group management were apparently upset at STV interviewing me on screen for the six o clock news after their announcement of 90 job cuts at The Record and Sunday Mail and outsourcing work to England. They were probably less upset with BBC Scotland only doing a piece on DriveTime with little or nothing on Reporting Scotland or Newsnight Scotland, but maybe there is an old pals act in place there - time will tell. I was then criticised on Facebook by a freelance member for failing to get blood out of a stone that is Johnston Press and had to say I wasn't too happy and responded accordingly. I was then criticised by STV management for daring to put a tweet onto the NUJ web site highlighting a little difficulty we are having with poor communication from managers. For a communication industry we really do have problems with communicating in more ways than one.

Facebook difficulties.

I would never dream of going on a personal social web site in normal working hours, Too busy by far and my daily social networking is restricted to meeting the odd FOC or member in a bar or cafe somewhere in Scotland. More than often it is in the workplace canteen like the BBC, Daily Record or Scotsman. However we now have our own NUJ facebook and web page fed by twitter and that has been quite successful in getting news out to members as quickly as possible. However there are plenty of people putting personal stuff up during the day, probably using company equipment. I know this because there is a growing demand for officials to advise and represent members facing diciplinary action for something they have done on facebook. Either using company time and equipment captured by the watchful eyes of IT or even abusing colleagues or clients.

It is a potential minefield and people have to be aware they are being monitored and may get caught, so spare us the wasted time and your embarassment by being careful.

Grievances a challenge for management.

There is a growing demand for our union officials to submit grievances on behalf of members. The issues are usually related to mismanagement which might include bullying or victimisation. Some of these cases end up in the courts particularly where discrimination is part of the problem. The stupid thing is that almost of all of them can be avoided in the first place or sorted out at an early stage with a sensible response from the managers involved.

In some companies however there appears to be an obstinate reluctance to settle in favour of the employee. For example the NUJ has taken nearly 20 grievances against Newsquest management in the last few years and i can't recall one which was upheld. The Daily Record & Sunday Mail is a similar story with a number ending up costing these companies an arm and leg in legal costs and settlements. Is it ego or power? Who can say but surely the beancounters must be asking questions about these costs.

In some ways it keeps the union in good stead as the publicity and credit does wonders for our reputation and recruitment or retention. But is it neccessary to put people through the mill, damaging their well-being just because some people can't manage for toffee? Give us some common sense and humanity and do us all a favour - particularly your pockets.

Human rights.

Journalism is a human rights issue and will be the focus of NUJ Scotland's campaign work this year. We are savouring the sweet taste of success only weeks into 2011 and are already fighting on various fronts. Our first victory was for investigative journalism and against censorship and opression.

That might sound grand - nevertheless it is true. Film making journalists Anthony Baxter and Richard Phinney of Montrose Pictures were arrested and charged with breach of the peace by Grampian Police. They only appeared to be breaching the peace of Donald Trump's lackeys, by asking (very politely) when they were going to repair the water supply to their neighbours, the local residents who live close to the super-duper golf development. While building a new road over a local well, a Trump digger drove it's shovel into the clay pipe supplying water to the adjacent farms and houses stopping the flow of H2O for over a week.

I watched the film rushes this week and was shocked at the actions of Aberdeen's boys in blue as they huckled the hacks into handcuffs and removed the camera equipment, mid-interview in the garden of a thirsty local woman just wanting to flush her loo.

As NUJ National Organiser I do try and support our members and wrote to the police complaints office seeking assurances that the Northern bobbies are not employed solely to stop bona fide journalists from holding the likes of Donald Trump and his diggers to account. The charges were dropped eventually and records of fingerprint and DNA were apparently expunged. A correct decision but the intimidatory nature of the police action is something that requires a close-watching.

I have had to intervene on behalf of two other NUJ members who also face a threat to their freedom and health for exposing "the great and the good". These guys have written critical articles about their respective government ministers and are not flavour of the month in their countries of birth.

Charles Atangana is facing deportation to Cameroon, where he has already faced arrest and torture. His fellow Glasgow branch member Alieu Ceesay was targeted this week by the Gambian Justice Minister who made threatening noises about "evil" exiles campaigning against human rights abuses in the African state. Both men have also been targeted by the UK Borders Agency and are fighting with the support of the NUJ against deportation.

A free night of music, film and craic under the title Journalism is a human right, has been organised for Tuesday January 18th from 7.30pm to 11pm in the CCA in Sauchiehall Street. This is one of a number of events planned for this year to raise awareness of this issue, watch this space and look out for the Trump film in the spring.

It's Friday. Its Newsquest. It must be bad news.

It could have been worse I suppose. Only 10 jobs going across the three titles. There are difficulties though. There really aren't enough journalists working in Renfield Street as it is. So increased problems for those remaining-no doubt about that. For those desperate to leave or volunteer then we have the not insignificant obstacle of the company appearing to offer only statutory redundancy terms. There could be trouble ahead (as the song goes). On the back of a two year pay freeze, a savage assault on the final salary pension scheme and continued reluctance to offer decent terms to and work to freelances then it is not a happy ship - but hey - not yet the Mary Celeste or Titanic.