BBC London
BBC London branch has more than 1,000 members in more than 20 chapels. They work all over different parts of the BBC in London – except for World Service, which has its own separate branch – such as BBC national TV and radio, the BBC News website, BBC Sport, factual programmes, children’s TV, Millbank and the BBC’s commercial arm World Wide.
Our delegation includes four online journalists, a radio journalist, a News Channel journalist, two full-time NUJ secondees, a Radio Times sub-editor and someone who works on political programmes at Millbank.
Book Branch
Book Branch represents workers in the book publishing industry, including writers, editors, designers, production, and publicity.
Our delegation reflects the diversity of our sector.
The delegates:
Huw Davies is Branch chair and is active in Lexis Nexis chapel. This is his second ADM. Huw will be proposing motion 148, condemning Governor Schwarzenegger’s decision to scrap schools’ book budgets.
Kyran Connolly is NEC member for the Book sector, a veteran of many ADMs. His main participation in ADM will be as part of the NEC.
Andy Smith is our Branch Treasurer; he is also an NEC member, for one of the geographical South East seats. He is one of the NEC reps on SOC which is very helpful to the branch when we are writing our ADM motions.
Annie Pike is another long-term activist. She works at OFSTED and is also an active member of PCS. She will be proposing motion 49 deploring cuts in library services.
Cath Rasbash actually works in a traditional book publishers, A & C Black. She has been a delegate at numerous ADMs. She will be proposing motion 161 on promoting recruitment in New Media sector.
Sylvia Courtnage is joint MoC of Lexis Nexis chapel; she works from home. She will be proposing motion 117 on the dangers of outsourcing.
Parvinder Singh is currently working freelance; he is very involved in the campaign for justice for Sikhs massacred in India in 1984 and has prompted our motion on this topic (motion 147 on the International order paper). This is his first ADM.
Brighton Branch
Brighton – the NUJ branch by the sea. Which doesn’t mean we go paddling all
the time, much as we might like to. We’re a friendly branch and try to keep
our bi-monthly meetings as fun and sociable as possible, namely by holding
them in the pub. Sorry for the beer stains, HQ. As a branch, we’re particularly proud of the social functions we host for our members and this year we even put on a Mad Hatters’ Tea Party on the beach, complete with teapots. We’re always delighted to meet new members and welcome anyone and everyone to join our friendly group. Carlsberg don’t make NUJ branches, but if they did…
The delegates:
Phil Mellows, Branch Treasurer
Phil Mellows is a delegate from Brighton NUJ. He has been an NUJ member since 1976, held most branch and chapel positions and been an ADM delegate several times (he lost count). He is currently freelancing, specialising in articles on the drinks and pubs industry.
www.philmellows.com
Susannah Quinn, Welfare Officer
Susannah Quinn is a journalist and ghostwriter, and loves nothing more than the witty banter and political insight of an NUJ meeting at the end of a long day. She feels very privileged to work in the centre of Brighton and is always available to talk with NUJ members about anything and everything, from redundancy to more Brighton-orientated things like holistic vegan acupuncture (yes – it really does work!).
Bristol
Bristol branch is the biggest and most active in the South-West, numbering over 350 members. There are 90 freelances in the branch who supply widely in a variety of fields. The BBC and ITV are both considerable presences in the city, which with its tradition of news-gathering going back to the nineteenth century is a major media centre in the region, and in recent years this has been reflected in the hundreds of students now studying journalism here, as well as a growth in the PR and communications industry. In recent years the local newspapers – the Western Daily Press and the Bristol Evening Post – have cut their operations and shed a third of jobs. The two papers both have active NUJ chapels, and indeed until recent years the Bristol Evening Post had the only chapel in the Northcliffe group. The branch has delegates to the SW TUC and Bristol Trades Council, and our members sit on various NUJ industrial and other councils.
The delegates:
Christina Zaba
I worked in academic publishing for ten years before moving into journalism in 1994, since when I have written for a wide variety of publications, worked as a TV reporter, written and directed several documentaries and published two celebrity memoirs. I now run a communications agency while also writing widely and campaigning on the National Identity Scheme. I have been an NUJ member since 1997 and an activist since 2004, when I joined Bristol Branch, becoming freelance officer in 2005 and branch chair in 2006. I have sat on the Freelance Industrial Council, the Disabled Members’ Council and the Equality Council and have been a delegate to the TUC Women’s Conference and the TUC Disability Conference, as well as NUJ rep to the SW TUC and to Bristol Trades Council.
Paul Breeden
Paul Breeden is treasurer of Bristol Branch NUJ and has been a union member since starting in journalism as a reporter on a weekly paper in Surrey in 1983. Since then he has been a reporter and sub-editor on daily and weekly titles in London, Oxfordshire and Bristol and a freelance sub for several national newspapers.
In 2005 he helped to revive a dormant NUJ chapel at the Western Daily Press in Bristol and was elected FoC as members fought against the first of a series of savage job cuts by Northcliffe, the paper’s owner.
He took redundancy in 2008 and is now a freelance working in editing, training and PR.
He is on the executive of the Bristol Branch of the NUJ and is keen that branches do all they can to support chapels at anti-union employers such as Northcliffe. With other branch members, he is helping to revamp the branch website to make it a worthwhile resource for every member in Bristol.
He also rings the changes by being a professional handyman, which he finds a welcome distraction from contemplating the decline of the newspaper industry.
Simon Chapman
I am Secretary of Bristol Branch, work as a freelance photographer and have been an NUJ member since 1998. I worked for many years for local papers where I helped organise freelance photographers to achieve an increase in rates at the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press. I now do PR photography and work with national picture agencies covering news and music. I have been active in the Branch since 2002, helped to re-establish the Branch, was previously Treasurer, and became Secretary in 2006. I am on the Freelance Industrial Council as representative for the south west of England, and on the Photographers Sub-Committee, and was one of the selectors for this year’s NUJ Photographers’ Exhibition. I have been a Bristol Branch delegate at every ADM since 2003, and I am also involved in my local Trades Union Council in Bristol as both a delegate from my Branch and a member of the Trades Council’s Executive Committee.
Derby and Burton
Derby and Burton branch covers most of Derbyshire and East Staffordshire, but we also have members who live or work work elsewhere, in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, for instance, and a husband and wife who are currently working on a two-year contract in Israel.
The branch has around 70 members, with representation at two daily (formerly evening!) newspapers, the Derby Telegraph and the Burton Mail, BBC Radio Derby, RAM FM, and freelances.
The delegate:
Delegate is Kevin Palmer, an NUJ member since 1971, who has held numerous positions at branch and chapel level. This will be his sixth ADM, but the first for 23 years. He currently freelances and also does press and public relations. He is vice-chairman and freelance officer.
Edinburgh & District
Edinburgh & District is one of the two NUJ Branches in Edinburgh, the other being Edinburgh Freelance. Edinburgh & District has around 380 members in quite a wide geographical area including over the Forth to Fife and down to the Scottish Borders. Members work in a variety of disciplines including national newspapers, regional papers, broadcasting, books, magazines, PR, and the Scottish Parliament.
The delegates:
Liam Rodger, Branch Chair and FOC at Chambers Harrap (publishers), which has recently announced the closure of its Edinburgh operation;
Pat Herd, Branch Secretary, member in the PR section of the Union
Hugh Kerr, a former MEP and Press Offcer in the Scottish Parliament. Hugh is also our Branch delegate to the Scottish Executive Council and a member of the NUJ’s Ethics Council.
Forth Valley Branch
Forth Valley is a branch of around 90 members covering the area between Glasgow and Edinburgh in the central belt of Scotland. It is primarily a weekly paper branch, representing members from papers in Falkirk, Linlithgow, Cumbernauld, Stirling, Alloa and Clackmannan, as well as some PRs and daily newspaper journalists.
The delegate:
Duncan McCallum, Branch Chairman/Secretary
Duncan McCallum is branch chairman/secretary and a member of the Scottish Executive Council. He is assistant editor of The Falkirk Herald newspaper.
Paris Branch
With more than 280 members spread over France, Paris branch, founded in 1948, is the largest of the three Continental European branches, which are represented by the Continental Europe Council (CEC). Its well-attended branch meetings provide a valuable opportunity for English-speaking journalists in France to discuss working conditions and problems specific to working in France such as the complicated social security system and French employment law. The branch is currently helping in several cases of disputes with employers and redundancy. It also organizes social and networking events, and circulates an email Grapevine informing members about staff and freelance jobs. The branch forges links with French journalists’ unions, and takes to the streets with them under its bright green banner proclaiming “NUJ: le syndicat des journalists anglophones en France”.
The delegates:
Jeff Apter, Recruitment and Retention Officer
Long-serving Paris Branch NUJ activist Jeff Apter this year receives the Member of Honour award. Jeff has held many positions in the Branch, including Secretary, Chair and Newsletter Editor. He is also a former Continental European Council chair and member of the NEC, which he rejoins as a job share this November. Since standing down as Branch Chair in 2008 he has been Paris NUJ’s first Recruitment and Retention officer, and has succeeded in setting up chapels in several workplaces as well as recruiting new freelance members. It is largely thanks to Jeff and his team that the branch has more than 280 members. Jeff is a freelance journalist specializing in industrial and social issues, maritime matters and aerospace.
Simon Coss, Vice Chair
Longstanding Paris NUJ activist, Simon Coss is attending ADM this year both as the NEC representative for Continental Europe and a Paris branch delegate. He is Paris branch’s Vice chair. Simon is a freelance broadcast and written press journalist who lives in Rennes and travels widely in Europe for his work. He often writes and makes TV reports for France’s international news agency AFP. He also produces TV features that are re-broadcast by TV stations around Europe.
Press and PR
Press and PR branch has more than 800 members and covers members who work in public relations and communications in London and the surrounding areas. In 2007 – the union’s centenary year – the branch celebrated its 50th anniversary and we like to think it is going from strength to strength. This year it has key motions on the scheduling of the next ADM, the future of the Journalist magazine online and reporting the BNP.
The delegates:
Monica Foot has been an NUJ member since 1960. A former NEC member, she established the press office at Birmingham City Council. She is now retired but is still active in pensioner and union matters.
Mick Gosling has been a trade unionist since the 1960s when he worked for the Ford motor company. Joint chair of the branch, he is an experienced union negotiator and activist, and is a familiar figure at conference.
Sian Jones is the assistant secretary of the branch and, as press officer of the Communication Workers Union, has been in the eye of the media hurricane recently. She is chair of the Campaign Against Climate Change trade union group. This is her first NUJ conference.
Richard Simcox is secretary of the branch and this will be his fourth time as a delegate at conference. His maiden ADM speech was at Llandudno in 2003 about the new wave of militancy in Newsquest chapels in south London. He now works for the Public and Commercial Services union as the editor of a magazine for activists.
Debbie Smith is a well-known face at conference having organised it for the past four years as an NUJ employee, but this year she is making her debut as a delegate. She is currently looking for work having been made redundant earlier in the year from her job as a press officer for a football club.
Barry White has been an NUJ member since 1982, and since 1997 has been the national organiser for the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. He has just been elected back onto the NEC after a stint between 2002 and 2004, was the NUJ rep on the European Federation of Journalists from 2004 to 2007 and is joint chair of the branch.
Scarborough
Another branch by the sea. Like Brighton, we also meet in a pub, the Alma, where the landlord lays on chips and sandwiches if we’re lucky. Recent meetings have discussed Atex, the joint 2010 pay claim for JP chapels and our editor’s bizarre proposal for reporters working weekends to take the days back as lieu time the following week if staffing levels permit otherwise they’re forfeited. He backed down quickly after a rabble-rousing session in the Alma.
The delegate:
Our delegate is Dave Barry, FoC of the Scarborough Evening News chapel, which has about 30 full-time staff (22 – or 73% – are NUJ members). Dave has been in the NUJ for about 20 years. This will be his fifth ADM – his first was rather conveniently located in Scarborough. At the SEN, he is an arts reporter three days a week and a photographer the other two.
Swansea and District Branch
We are a branch of 120 members covering a large area of South and West Wales. Newspaper journalists and freelances are the largest categories of members.
The branch is actively recruiting and September 2008 saw recognition won at the South West Evening Post and its sister papers the Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star after a determined campaign against hostile management, South West Wales Media (Northcliffe). We are seeking recognition at Newsquest papers in West Wales. We are also currently trying to initiate a media co-operative for freelances.
We recently held a well attended public meeting on the future of journalism in Wales when the speakers included AM Nerys Evans and ITV journalist and Wales Executive Council member Andy Collinson.
Our branch secretary Ken Smith was recently elected chair of the Wales Executive Council.
The delegate:
The branch delegate is our welfare officer Roger Butler, who is a local government press officer, and a former branch treasurer.
You asked for some blurb about ADM delegates. I am a delegate from Brighton NUJ. I've been an NUJ member since 1976, held most branch and chapel positions and been an ADM delegate several times (lost count). I'm currently freelancing and branch treasurer - if you want more about me please look on the website below. Cheers, Phil. www.philmellows.com The Politics of Drinking... and more www.twitter.com/philmellows
