nujadm.org.uk/2009

Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, focused on the jobs crisis in the media in his speech to delegates today.

Job cuts and their impact on communities

With losses affecting all aspects of the industry, the room was encouraged to appreciate campaigning already done and how a stronger union can make bigger differences.

He used the Midlands town of Long Eaton as a a case study – wich has recently lost its only local newspaper. Dear called corporate media “negligent over jobs, reckless with democracy”.

He attacked Trinity Mirror bosses, who recently called NUJ members “reckless and negligent”, for their pay packets and “failed corporate business model for news”.

He amused the room by calling them with “pigs caught with their snouts in the media trough, their heads in the sand and their arses exposed”.

Dear attacked the culture of profits, which is leaving local and national democracy unscrutinised.

Tough times for the union

He went on to highlight how the union itself is facing tough times, and decisions have to be make to ensure the continued support to members

To applause, Dear ended his speech quoting William Morris: “Intelligence enough to conceive, courage enough to will, power enough to compel.

“If our ideas of a new society are to be anything other than a dream, these three qualities must animate the due effective majority of the working people; and then I say, the thing will be done.”