More than a decade after the last major newspaper strike in Scotland, members in the Daily Record and Sunday Mail Chapel have voted to ballot for industrial action.

The move comes in response to a decision to impose changes in Retouch, which would result in job losses and has already affected quality in the papers.

The management decision, which followed changes of senior personnel in Human Resources shocked chapel members.

Relations between staff and management at the papers had improved in recent months and there had been some hopes that continuing constructive dialogue would benefit all concerned at the titles.

However, the restructuring - which would attempt to implement practices that have failed at other newspapers - and the manner in which it has been announced were seen as constituting a clear attack on jobs and the NUJ at the papers, leaving the members in no doubt that a strike ballot was necessary.

The lengthy period in which strikes have been avoided in Scotland shows that such decisions are never taken lightly. Equally, the unanimous verdict on a ballot and the confident mood amongst chapel members demonstrate that, if management had believed that the workers' ultimate sanction was no longer a realistic option, they have been guilty of a serious miscalculation.

The full motion reads:

	This chapel unanimously rejects the imposition of a restructuring of the Retouch department, which will cease to exist under present plans.
	This chapel condemns the lack of collective consultation.
	This chapel expresses its extreme concern at the removal of this work from direct Editorial control.
	This chapel calls upon the management to put this restructuring on hold with immediate effect.
	This chapel instructs union officials to seek urgent talks on the threat to jobs and the impact this will have on the quality of the newspapers.
	This chapel is not prepared to accept this precipitous change in Editorial working practices and authorises officials to invoke the Disputes Procedure if there is no meaningful response from management by noon on 29th March 2004.

At a follow up chapel meeting almost 100 chapel members voted unanimously to ballot for industrial action in light of no movement by Management.

The Trades Union Congress is to deliver an Equality Rights briefing in Glasgow.

Funded by the Department of Trade and Industry, the exercise is designed to raise awareness of European Employment Equality Regulations on Religion, Belief and Sexual Orientation and to contribute to the production of positive outcomes.

New trade union education materials have been produced as support materials and a two-day training course is to be delivered across the regions.

The Glasgow briefing is one of three pilots, the other two of which will be held in Cardiff and London.

The take-up from Glasgow has, so far, been disappointing and members with an interest in attending are urged to take advantage of what is an excellent opportunity to become informed about the new regulations and their impact on the workplace.

Those attending will hear from ACAS about the new legislation, as well as having a chance to look at the new training materials. Local officers and workplace activists are encouraged to attend and the TUC would also welcome employers who might benefit from the event.

The briefings take place between 10am an 1pm Monday, 5th April. The venue will be John Smith House at 145-165 West Regent Street.

To book a place, contact Rozanne Foyer at: rfoyer@stuc.org.uk.

For more information about the project, including the training, please get in touch with Mary Myles at: mmyles@tuc.org.uk.

The first seminar, will address the scientific intricacies of major crime stories and offer members the basic foundations required to address such issues with authority.

Many infamous cases have rested on the understanding of complex matters of probabilistic forensic science such as control groups, Bayesian statistics and the ability of people to understand odds of billions to one.

Dr Allan Jamieson, Director of the Forensic Institute explains: "Every day people are being convicted on the basis of scientific evidence.

"The Forensic Institute believes that a better and wider understanding of forensic science will help the public, who may become jurors, understand the nature of scientific 'facts' and assist in reducing the number of miscarriages of justice.

"Journalists have a crucial role to play in this process by a critical analysis of what they are reporting and in making the public more aware of the deeper issues involved in the assessment of scientific or 'expert' testimony."

Angela Austin, the Scottish Training Officer and Assistant Organiser added: "The Scottish Office and the Forensic Institute have been in discussions for some time to try to establish a framework that would accommodate the Institute's desire to promote an improved understanding of scientific issues in a way that would benefit members by improving their professional skills.

"For writers and reporters without a scientific background, relaying complex details of important cases can be quite daunting. The Forensic Institute has a quite staggering breadth of expertise in areas relevant to stories that are constantly in the public focus.

"This interlocks perfectly with Glasgow branch plans to proactively find ways of being more directly relevant to members but the seminars are open to all members and could be hosted in other areas, should the demand arise."

The first afternoon seminar will be held in Glasgow on Wednesday, 26^th May at a cost of £50 and it is expected that demand will be high.

Places can be booked by contacting Angela Austin on 0141 944 7031 or emailing angela.nuj@btinternet.com.

Visit: www.theforensicinstitute.com.

The vote was 53 to 47 per cent against a Political Fund within the terms of the employment laws, which require trade unions to set up special funds for party-political campaigning.

The National Executive Council had committed itself to supporting the fund and faced criticisms that it was stifling the debate by taking an unbalanced position. The NEC also allocated £25,000 towards campaigning in favour of the fund, in addition to the £10,000 budgeted for the ballot itself.

Letters and emails urging a yes vote were sent to all members from the General Secretary, President, Vice-President, Honorary Treasurer and Campaigns Committee Chair while only one email was sent representing the opposing side of the debate.

However, NUJ President, George MacIntyre, described the process and the relatively high turnout as representing "a good exercise in union democracy".

He said: "Journalists have made it clear they want their union to be politically independent and we all agree on that.

"No-one wants the NUJ to give its support to any party.

The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, has warned journalists that their safety in war zones could depend on the content of their reports.

Commenting on the obligations that embedded reporters in Iraq owed to their military protectors, Hoon said: "The journalists know they had to write the truth in return for the protection they were given.

"If they write rubbish they might find themselves less well looked after."

Hoon's statement came as the NUJ had welcomed his acknowledgement that attacks on journalists should be considered to be a war crime.

However, Glasgow branch vice-chair, and leading media analyst David Miller said: "Geoff Hoon's apparent indifference to the killing of journalists in Iraq emphasises his Don Corleone approach to media relations.

"Journalists are treated as if the beneficiaries of a protection racket. The message is clear: embed with the military or face the consequences.

"The results can be seen in the 17 journalists killed by coalition forces and the continuing harassment of journalists by coalition forces in occupied Iraq."

After meeting with union officials and MPs recently Hoon had recognised the NUJ as leading the debate on journalists' safety in Britain and promised to support the union's call for stronger protection in international law.

The NUJ is supporting the International Federation of Journalists campaign for extra legal protection for journalists and colleagues such as camera operators, producers, drivers and translators. The IFJ is also campaigning for an independent international mechanism for investigating such attacks.

Hoon agreed that the combination of rapid technology and 24-hour broadcast news put increasing pressure on media workers to be near the front-line action in war zones.

Claiming that "the British military do not attack civilian targets and have no intention of ever doing so", he acknowledged that journalists "are under enormous pressure to put themselves in harm's way to get the story, more than in the past.

"We are willing to discuss this in the constructive way we always have with the NUJ."

The Ministry of Defence's guidelines for dealing with journalists in war zones are under review and the NUJ will now be involved in the process.

Despite Hoon's thinly veiled threats and the fact that the MoD had declined to meet with NUJ representatives in the last ten months, the General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: "It was very positive to get the chance to state what our concerns are and what government needs to do.

"We are now going to keep up the pressure to win a safer environment for journalists who have to cover wars."

Below is an abridged text of the General Secretary, Jeremy Dear's, address to the Glasgow branch on 12th February 2004.

Little did we know when I got a call to come to the Scottish Executive Council and West of Scotland Freelance branch, quite what a couple of weeks it would be for journalists and journalism in particular.

It's worth, in any meeting, paying tribute to our members at the BBC and the stance that they have taken in defence of the BBC, especially the way they have covered the crisis in their own organisation. There is no other news organisation in the UK that would have covered the story in the same way as the BBC and our members have shown remarkable courage and integrity amid what have been incredibly difficult, and at times I would have to say surreal, events that have taken place.

I think very quickly people realised that it wasn't about Greg Dyke and it wasn't about individuals - it was about a fundamental battle for public service broadcasting and the principles that we associate with the BBC and - at this time when it's under attack - its independence.

Across the country people have been sending in emails, letters and petitions - some handwritten; some beautifully designed - containing hundreds of signatures because they feel that they want to do something in the current battle with the government.

But I think Hutton has a greater implication than the events at the BBC - we have heard, for example Greg Dyke saying that the burden of proof on journalists would be greater than that on a government taking a country to war - but also the threat to the protection of sources and to whistleblowers from the fact that Hutton effectively said that the naming of Dr Kelly was okay.

So I think we have big battles to come over the BBC in the lead-up to Charter renewal and the appointment of a new Chair of Governors and a new Director General. And it's important that all journalists are united around those fundamental principles of independence for the BBC and of the integrity and of the right to pursue investigative journalism.

What all those events have shown - and certainly BBC people have said to us - is the vital importance of the NUJ and having a strong independent trade union as a voice for journalists and journalism.

I think the political independence argument is not the only one going on out there: the cost-cutting that is going on in so many companies whether it be in broadcasting or newspapers; there are more pages; more hours of broadcasting. But all too often we are seeing less staff having to produce those broadcasts and pages.

We have had a record decade for companies making profits and yet, in the good years they didn't share with us. Now, post-September 11th, they talk about the bad and the lean years in terms of advertising; they are asking us to share the pain in terms of jobs being lost or wages held down.

Well, don't feel sorry for them. Gannett, who own Newsquest, who have become major owners in Scotland recently, say that they have had a bad year - they only made £1.2 billion profit.

At one of their UK centres, they made £23,000 profit every single day. Executive pay has gone up 43 per cent and yet in many of their centres they're still offering below inflation pay rises to their journalists.

On the question of hours, we've still got the scandalous situation of a British government having opted out of the 48-hour working week. Newsquest again are one of those companies who are including in their contract for new staff, automatic opt-outs of the Working Time regulations. This is Health and Safety legislation and yet here is a major newspaper company asking people to opt out.

The Press Association are doing the same with new contracts. And it's no accident that the major focus of our campaigning over the past 12 months has been on the issue of pay in an awful lot of companies.

The Association of Graduate Recruiters said that after one year in work, people who are graduates should be earning £21,000 per year. The average non-manual wage in the UK is between £25,000 and £27,000 per year; the average professional pay is £34,000 a year. Now there are very few of our members - some of whom have worked for many years with companies - who earn some of those figures.

We've got people who work for some of the biggest regional newspaper companies or some of the commercial broadcasting organisations who have done 10 or 15 years in the company who still don't earn the £21,000 the Association of Graduate Recruiters says people should earn after a year.

You add on top of that stress, attacks on sick pay, job losses in commercial broadcasting as a result of the continuing mergers and continuing concentration of media ownership and there is a whole number of challenges facing us as a union. And, of course, all those things would be bad enough in a failing industry but, as I say, it's one of the most profitable industries in the UK.

Our recognition campaigns of the last two or three years have delivered some real successes for us as a union and they have also raised the ability and confidence of people to begin to act collectively again to protect their rights and to take things forward.

On pay, we've seen the government's own figures say that journalists' pay has risen by an average of over five per cent in the past 12 months. In some of the weekly and regional newspaper groups we've got deals of between six and nine per cent.

We're just starting discussions on a whole new career progression with Johnston Press; we've had companies, like the Belfast Telegraph, who have tried to introduce pay freezes where we have been able to break through those freezes and win proper pay rises across the board for the first time.

We've been able to get the bottom rate in journalism raised by quite a significant amount. We think, in the big four regional newspaper companies, we've been able to raise the bottom rate by 20 per cent in the past 18 months.

We've been able to get new agreements on Health and Safety, on bullying and so on. And if anyone wants an indication of this newfound confidence: we got the recognition at the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and the Spectator 12 months ago. When we did that, people said: "Aren't unions all about striking? We don't want any of that."

We told them: "It's all your decision. We won't call you out on strike."

Three weeks ago, after the company turned down their first pay claim they said: "So how do you organise a ballot?"

Yesterday, Daily Telegraph staff voted 87 per cent in favour of action short of a strike and 83 per cent in favour of strike action and the union reps are meeting tomorrow to plan the industrial action.

As a result of all of these things, the union's membership has continued to rise - a positive gain of 918 in the last year. That's five years in a row that union membership has been on the rise and as a result of that, the union's finances have improved and we've been able to put more money into staffing and organising - an extra £40,000 has gone into staffing and organising in Scotland.

We are now in a situation in which the union has as many industrial organisers as it has ever had and membership, I think, is probably almost as high as it has ever been.

But, having said all that, there are still an awful lot of things that we've got to do - questions about pay and hours and stress. There are too many people who still aren't members of the NUJ out there and the density of union membership is an issue that we really have got to tackle. If we are to deliver on any of those other issues it requires that we have as many people in the union as possible and to be as strong as possible in every single workplace.

There are too many places where our rights are still abused and where the law doesn't afford us proper protection. We've still got to campaign for the repeal of those anti-trade union laws that shackle unions in terms of being able to represent their members.

We've got to tackle huge questions of concentration of media ownership and when you see the attacks on the BBC by broadcasting organisations who have a vested interest in trying to marginalise the BBC, you realise in just how few hands the rest of the British media and indeed the international media really is now.

Just some things that we've got to do now: every single member has got to become a recruiter; recruiting people they work with, people they meet who are working in our industry. It can't just be left to full-time officials to do that; it's got to be every rep, every person recruiting those who aren't members in their workplace.

In order to help with that, we're going to start a series of training courses on recruitment strategies on how to recruit members. And also, over the next 12 months, we're going to produce a whole range of materials for union reps taking up some of those issues in the workplace and helping them to provide support. Part of that will be providing an online database of pay and agreements so that people are able to keep up to date with what's being negotiated in other places. We're doing that in conjunction with the Labour Research Department.

We're also, in October, going to launch a Campaigns and Communications Department bringing together our research, our information, our project work with a new head of campaigns and communications for the union: to begin to sort out some of the issues to do with internal communication so that members are kept up-to-date with what the union's doing but also our external communication so that non-members are able to know about the successes that the union is able to achieve.

We're also going to build on the back of the national pay campaign that we've had at Newsquest this year and roll that out to some of the other companies.

We also launched, in December, a cross-party parliamentary group with 27 MPs who signed up to a charter for media workers' rights that they agree with and are beginning to raise in parliament. I'll be talking to Paul [Holleran] and to Seamus [Dooley] and to people in Wales about extending that to other places so that we are able to more effectively campaign around changes in legislation.

When I was elected, I said that what I wanted to do was to build an effective campaigning union and I hope that what we all have been able to do in the past couple of years is to take steps towards that so that we make employers think twice before they abuse the rights of any of our members at work and when they do, they know that they will be faced by a union that is both ready and able to defend its members and promote their interests. Activists and branches and chapels are an absolutely vital part of that.

It's been good to be able to meet with people from two or three different branches and the Scottish Executive Council to hear about the things that you now want your union to be doing to take that forward....

The 2nd NUJ bullying seminar is to be held in Glasgow's Marriott Hotel on Saturday, 1st May.

The seminar, which is being organised by the Equality Council in conjunction with the General Federation of Trade Unions, will give members the opportunity to discuss experiences of workplace bullying as well as learning how to deal with the problem and its affects.

A model NUJ Dignity at Work agreement as well as bullying advice and information is now available for download on this site.

Places on the seminar are free but limited and those interested in attending should book as soon as possible.

To confirm your place please contact:
Debbie Smith, NUJ, Headland House, 308-312 Gray's Inn Road London WC1X 8DP.
Telephone: 020 7843 3723
E-mail: debbies@nuj.org.uk

The final agenda or the NUJ's Annual Delegates Meeting for 2004 has been published and is available for download.

Among key motions to look out for is one from Glasgow branch and the Scottish Executive Council calling on the NUJ to campaign for a register of interests at Holyrood while Grampian branch has submitted a motion asking for another Scottish staff member to service areas "outside the central belt".

Bound to be controversial is Dublin Newspapers' motion - the first on the agenda - instructing the NEC to host biennial, rather than annual, delegates meetings.

The issue has long been argued over in the NUJ with supporters arguing in favour of cost savings and insisting that too little crucial business is done at ADM to justify an annual event. Opponents say that the yearly meeting is the best way to guarantee democracy in the union.