4 Comments
Given my new role it has been suggested to me that I join the National Union of Journalists. There’s one problem about that though, it’s a union (and I’m not the biggest fan of unions). Nevertheless I decided to take a look at the NUJ website rather than dismiss it out of hand and was most amused by their application form, or rather the section of the form where applicants are to list their proposer and seconder:
Unions, you have to love them…
Posted by jaybs on March 20th, 2008 at 1:49 pm:
Just shows that a Union can’t afford to say no to anyone.
Before going into radio, I worked for a short time in newspapers, both careers Management bought us out of being union members and to be truthful I never missed be a member.
Posted by Malcolm on March 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm:
While it is easy to guess why a Conservative would be wary of being a union member, I am happy to be one myself even though my political inclinations are right of centre - on the grounds that management are not perfect and may - in good faith or bad - make mistakes in the way it treats its employees. If that happens, I would be glad for the union support.
I wish very much that unions could get away from the whole class struggle business. Really, it is in theirs and the managers best interests to work with each other to improve and help the business to grow. Instead, in the past, and today in my experience, we get the purile Them And Us attitude.
Likewise, from the Tory point of view, I think it would be good if the Conservatives ‘re-aligned’ its relationship with the unions. I’m not talking about anything like a formal agreement, but it would surely be good if they identified with each other’s interests a bit more, and took that into consideration when deciding action during disputes. However, I guess this is right wing heresy (I hope Mr Blaney doesn’t read this blog!), but there we are. Just a thought.
Regarding Josephine’s comment about the union dues - I think she is referring to union political fund. If so, one can withhold the money. It doesn’t need to go to the Labour Party.
Posted by Donnacha DeLong on March 26th, 2008 at 12:31 am:
Research is a good idea - the NUJ doesn’t have a political fund nor does it give any money to the Labour Party (the NUJ is unaffiliated to any political party).
Back to Shane’s comment - what’s the issue? Applicants for NUJ membership are supposed to find a proposer and seconder to make it easier to ensure they meet the membership rules (you’d be surprised at some of the people who do apply). Of course, if there are no NUJ members around, the union still wants them to apply. I’m not sure what the problem is.
Finally, you might want to look into how many Conservatives are in the NUJ. There are even some sitting Tory MPs who are members - http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=13
Posted by Josephine,Eastbourne on March 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm:
Also wouldn’t part of yur union dues go to the Labour party? - If you did join that would be somewhat ironic eh?
jo