National Union of Journalists

"NUJ" redirects here. See also Newcastle United Jets.

NUJ

Full name	National Union of Journalists
Founded	1907
Members	35,000
Country	United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland
Affiliation	IFJ, TUC, STUC, ICTU, TUCG
Key people	Michelle Stanistreet, General Secretary Vacant, Deputy General Secretary Seamus Dooley, Irish Secretary
Office location	London, England
Website	nuj.org.uk

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Structure

NUJ Headquarters, Gray's Inn Road, London

There is a range of national councils below the NEC, covering different sections and areas of activity. There is an industrial council for each of the NUJ's "industrial" sectors -- Newspapers and Agencies, Freelance, Magazine and Book, Broadcasting, New Media and Press and PR.

There are also national Executive Councils, covering all sectors, for Ireland and Scotland. The Irish Executive Council, which has a higher degree of autonomy, covers Northern Ireland as well as the Republic.^[1]

The union's structure is democratic and its supreme decision-making body is its Annual Delegate Meeting, a gathering of elected delegates from all branches across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Between meetings, decisions lie with the NUJ's National Executive Council, a committee of 27 people, elected annually by members. The NEC is chaired by a President, elected, along with a Vice-President and Treasurer, at the Annual Delegate Meeting.

The General Secretary (GS) is elected every five years by a national ballot of all members. The current GS is Michelle Stanistreet.

The General Secretary is responsible for the day-to-day running of the union and directing its staff. However, important decisions such as authorising industrial action must be taken by the NEC.

General Secretaries

• 1907: William Watts^[2]
• 1918: Harry Richardson^[2]
• 1936: Clement Bundock^[3]
• 1952: Jim Bradley^[3]
• 1969: Ken Morgan^[3]
• 1977: Ken Ashton^[3]
• 1985: Harry Conroy^[3]
• 1990: Steve Turner^[3]
• 1992: John Foster^[3]
• 2001: Jeremy Dear
• 2011: Michelle Stanistreet

History

On 7th August, 1985, some members of the union engaged in a labour dispute with BBC, IBA, ILR stations and S4C, caused the disruption of broadcasting on BBC2 and Channel 4, BBC1 showed back-to-back cartoons instead of the normal service.^[4]

See also

Organized labour portal

• Journalism
• Trade union

References

1. ^ About Us National Union of Journalists
2. ^ ^{a b} ‘The editor should be absolutely independent, so long as he does not use his independence as a partisan ...’ The Journalist, November 2008
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Tim Gopsill and Greg Neale, Journalists: 100 Years of the NUJ
4. ^ [1]

External links

• NUJ - National Union of Journalists