Leaders of the National Union of Journalists have warned members that subscriptions will have rise to address a financial crisis facing the union.
Last week it emerged that the union needs to cut costs by £400,000, equivalent to the loss of nine of its 47 staff.
It sent an email to all members earlier this week spelling out a series of measures to counter the impact of the recession in the media industry.
They include a 5pc increase in subscriptions, equivalent to an annual rise of between £7.80 and £13.50.
General secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “This is not the first time the NUJ has had to take decisive action to deal with financial difficulties. Previous solutions to falling income, resulting from a fall in employment in our industries, have sustained us until now.
“But we are conscious that if we are to plan responsibly for the future of the union, and the members whom we serve, we need a comprehensive strategy which involves managing expenditure and practising good housekeeping while continuing to provide the service to NUJ members which they are entitled to expect.”
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If the NUJ was a newspaper group, the NUJ would be telling the NUJ that cutting staff is never the answer, investment in people is the key, blah, blah, blah, it’s a disgrace, the people in charge should be accountable, the fat cats should pay withe their jobs. The NUJ, in my view, is paying the price for years of failure to come up with constructive ideas for the future of the industry … instead, they just wanted management heads to roll and staff to go on strike. Had they acted differently, they might have had more members.
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That reminds me, must cancel membership – when being made redundant, greeted with indifference at head office level, and the chap who I initially liaised with, when I rang him a second time, got ansaphone message: “I am now on holiday for a fortnight….”
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Regional journalists of the nation: why waste a substantial chunk of your tiny pay packets on a representative body which has stood powerless as the entire industry has been cut in half and brought to its knees?
I’m all for union movements but ours is totally ineffectual. Might as well get out.
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To hit the £450K savings target, the NUJ needs to recruit another 2K members. That is what the leadership should be concentrating on, not playing the numbers game. The NUJ can live within its means if the leadership acknowledge that the union is being burued under paper & committees that (at best) only duplicate what the over-worked staff are doing.
Getting rid of industrial councils would save £250K – which is preferrable to putting up subs. Even a 5% rise is unlikely to raise more than 2% more income.
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