Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said yesterday that the union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) would rethink the Training department’s funding in light of new proposals.

A motion brought forward to the union’s Annual Delegate Conference (ADM), suggested that the NEC should look into the profit-making possibilities of the training courses.

Although the motion had to be withdrawn due to an inaccuracy, Dear said the NEC would have backed it had it gone ahead.

He said: “Had the motion been in order we [the NEC] would have supported it. We would have investigated whether or not this was a possibility.

“NUJ training has a good reputation. It’s successful, and if we can make it more successful and available to more people then we’ll certainly look at it.”

Motion

Dear added: “Costs are a massive issue for us. Therefore we have to look at all the costs. But if this is something that could not be a cost but a benefit then we would not only keep it, we would expand it.”

The union was looking to cut one member of staff from the department as a cost saving measure.

Motion 132 instructed that the NEC should instead “investigate NUJ training operating as a profit centre, marketing its commercial course more aggressively and using its profits to continue providing cheap courses for members”.

The motion was withdrawn by the London Magazine branch over a mix-up about how the department’s salaries are funded. However, the principles of the motion will be taken on board.

Training

Last year the Training department ran 87 courses. 60 were in professional journalist training. The department also organises training for commercial companies and trade union training.

The Training department was also responsible for organising the students who have been reporting on ADM.

At the moment the union’s commercial training programmes are only advertised in The Journalist and on the NUJ website. One option would be to expand this marketing to bring in more commercial clients.

Over the last year commercial clients have included the Magazine company Informa, the Open University, Lexus Nexus and the Cabinet Office.

Linda King, the union’s Education and Training Officer, said: “We are getting more and more demand [for our courses] as members are losing jobs. In the current economic climate a way of retaining that membership is through retraining the individuals who have lost their jobs.”

We will watch the NEC’s progress with interest.

Links (open in new window)

NUJ Training

London Magazine Branch

She pocketed £45 after correctly guessing the length of the General Secretary’s address to delegates this morning. It was 15 minutes and 16 seconds long.

“A few drinks…”

She told us what she plans to do with her winnings: “I’m sure that between the admin team we can get something out of it.”

“Maybe some biscuits, and a few drinks to say thank you for everyone that has helped out because everyone’s been really great.”

The competition has become ADM tradition, inspired by Jeremy’s past speeches which have been known to last for over 45 minutes.

This year saw Jeremy discussing topics such as the problems facing the NUJ and local news media.

The NUJ ADM conference is to be held at least every 18 months after the controversial Motion 1 was passed without amendment in a debate that centred on the democratic future of the union.

National Union of Journalists General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, spoke first.

Describing the union’s current financial situation, he said that, unabated, the current loss of funds could escalate to 600,000 by 2015.

He spoke against fears that a longer interval between meetings would “impoverish democracy”.

“Staff are taking paycuts, we’re renting out half of our headquarters – how else can we make these cuts? Do we cut back on support for jorunalists? This motion would save 195,000, please support it,” he said.

Democracy

The debate reflected the difficult choices faced by the union - stressing the need for members to meet face to face and for rules to be passed regularly. Alan Gibson of London Magazine branch said:

“The idea that six months is neither here nore there is ridiculous. If we’d met at conference 6 months ago we’d be six months ahead in solving  the financial crisis. It’s important that we meet every year for this reason.”

Francis Becket of London Freelancers retorted by  pointing to the financial drain caused by conferences:

“If we had one six months ago we’d be spending more money. ADMs are about spending money not saving it. The strength of this union is that it is a strong demcoracry and it can survive for 2 years without an ADM.”

The middle ground was sought by Chris Frost of the NEC, who spoke to the practicalities of saving money, laying out the options available to the union.

He said: “No one is disputing that we need to save money and no one is disputing that this measure would save money.  We must have that money or are union would be damaged.”