Unions line up new freelance training

THE UNION is leading a multi-union project to provide multimedia training for freelances. Under the umbrella of the Federation of Entertainment Unions, the NUJ has joined forces with the broadcasting, actors’ and musicians’ unions to work out how best to help freelances pick up skills in new media — writing and blogging for the web, recording video and audio and so on.

“In highly competitive and quickly changing industries our members constantly need to review and adapt their skills to support and enhance career development,” said NUJ Education and Training Officer Linda King. “We already provide a successful training programme for all members, including freelances, but we are always looking for new ways to improve the provision.”

There will also be courses in such career-developing areas as finance and tax, networking and marketing, copyright and freelance rates.

A “training hub” website has been opened at www.feutraining.org.uk and a series of pilot courses is running in the north west of England.

 

Foot-dragging so unstatesmanlike

BOSSES AT THE left-leaning weekly New Statesman magazine are holding out against granting the NUJ the right to represent the staff.

Six months after a resurgent chapel made a formal request for union recognition, it has still not been given a date on which the company will provide a definitive response.

The union began a recruiting drive to prepare for recognition more than a year ago and 14 of the magazine’s 17 journalists are now members.

Managers have been passing the buck around between them and talks have been inconclusive. A decision on whether to grant recognition voluntarily or require a statutory ballot of the staff was promised by the end of October but failed to materialise.

Mother of Chapel Caroline Palmer said: “I find the whole thing astonishing. It is so frustrating.”

 

Ross managers ‘contravened own guidelines’

THE NUJ condemned BBC managers over their handling of the row over the radio broadcast by comedians Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.

The row led to the suspension of Jonathan Ross and the resignations of Russell Brand and of Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas.

On October 31 the union’s National Executive Council unanimously condemned “the failure of BBC senior editors to prevent this pre-recorded piece from going to air, in contravention of the corporation’s own editorial guidelines”.

The NEC also condemned the failure of the Director-General, and other senior executives, to recognise, in good time, the damage this incident would cause. “Their lack of leadership, and judgement, allowed the incident to gather momentum, and cause serious damage to the BBC’s reputation,” it said.

THE HERITAGE Minister in the Welsh Assembly, Alun Ffred Jones AM, spoke at a fringe meeting at the Plaid Cymru annual conference in Aberystwyth in September — the first meeting ever held by the NUJ at a ruling party conference. Fifty people debated “Invisible Wales”, expressing the union’s fears that in a new global media world Welsh voices were increasingly being weakened. The meeting was chaired by NUJ national executive member Meic Birtwistle.

TRAVELLERS, gypsies and showmen from Gloucestershire met the county’s journalists to explain how negative media images affect their lives. Organised by the NUJ local branch and the Race Equality Council for Gloucestershire, the meeting was attended by local editors who agreed to take care with the terminology they used to describe travelling people. Branch Chair Tim Lezard said: “This was yet another example of the NUJ leading the way in tackling prejudice in the media.”