Draft DM motion: Recruitment

October 27, 2017

The following is a draft motion to be considered at our next meeting on 31 October.

This DM welcomes the increasing membership in the new media and independent broadcasting sectors. DM notes that much of this is coming from members in different sectors and workplaces encouraging their friends and contacts to join.

However, DM recognises that, too often, members focus on recruiting in their own sectors, even though, in their professional lives, they regularly engage with potential members in other sectors. For example, newspaper journalists are regularly in touch with commercial PRs.

DM instructs the NEC to encourage a One Union approach to recruitment across sectors and to produce guidance for members on how best to recruit across sectors.

Proposed by Donnacha DeLong

Draft DM motion: Membership

October 27, 2017

The following is a draft motion to be considered at our next meeting on 31 October.

DM notes that as technological developments reshape the media and reduce the need for technical workers, the union’s membership restrictions limit potential recruitment and our industrial strength.

DM believes that the rules can create unnecessary divisions in the workplace whereby, for example, support or technical staff must join another union or remain unrepresented. DM notes that, in many of our workplaces, no other union has sought to recruit non-journalistic workers.

This DM believes that the NUJ should become the union for mediaworkers and open membership up to all those working in the media who wish to join.

DM therefore instructs the NEC to amend the rules to give effect to the principle that anyone working for a media company or in the media departments of other companies should qualify for membership, regardless of their role.

DM instructs the NEC to seek to ensure that these changes do not impact on existing agreements with other unions in some workplaces and not to seek to recruit members of other unions.

Proposed by Donnacha DeLong

Branch and NEC solidarity with #iamirish and #weareirish

April 29, 2017

Another motion was passed at the emergency chapel committee meeting on Wednesday 26 April (after a non-quorate branch meeting on Tuesday). I (Donnacha DeLong, branch treasurer/membership and recruitment officer) have been working with the #IamIrish campaign since last Autumn and spoke on a panel at one of their events.

The racist abuse of the campaign was brought to my attention when an abusive tweet was directed at me. I looked at the tweeter’s other post and he had both tweeted and retweeted some of the most horrible racist abuse I’ve seen in a long time – some of using explicitly Nazi quotes and images.

Read more about Branch and NEC solidarity with #iamirish and #weareirish

Heart Unions logo

#HeartNUJ: Branch activity is the foundation of our union

February 13, 2017

This article originally appeared on the main NUJ site.

Donnacha DeLong, branch activist and NUJ rep

Why do I do this? I’ve been active in the NUJ since I was a student member more than 20 years ago. I’ve been a chapel officer, a branch officer, a member and chair of the national executive and other councils, vice-president and president of the union.

Read more of #HeartNUJ: Branch activity is the foundation of our union