National World chief executive David Montgomery might well have allowed himself a wry smile a few weeks ago, when the company’s journalists in England decided to strike.
The summer closure of offices in Leeds had left journalists without one of the most potent “optics” of industrial action – somewhere to picket.
UK industrial relations law prohibits secondary picketing, so any demonstration outside the co-working facility in the city where the company has rented space would probably have been illegal.
So, with no newsroom or workplace per se to picket, what do you do?
Members of the NUJ chapels at the Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post and associated weekly titles chose a site familiar to trade unionists and other campaigners in Leeds for a rally – Victoria Gardens, outside the city Art Gallery on the Headrow.
Journalists gathered there each morning during the three strike days, carrying placards highlighting the effects of cuts and low pay on local news.
Picket lines have a long tradition of bringing people together in solidarity, with strikers supported by other union members, traditionally encouraging others not to enter premises where they had stopped. Pickets based at surviving NW offices were able to encourage colleagues not to work on strike days and even recruited young colleagues into the union.
NW tried to encourage members to continue working – from home – telling them that logging on would remain confidential. The union understands that members are so angry about pay and conditions that few, if any, did this.
Working from home has also brought about changes to union organisation, with contact having to be by phone or electronic rather than going to someone’s desk, chatting while making coffee or having in-person chapel meetings.
Being on a picket line did bring people together – and, as one of those involved for the first time explains, the experience boosts confidence, there and then as well for the future.
Building trust between members is vital for unions – and it is easier to achieve, at least initially, in-person than online.
To those accustomed to chapel meetings of the past in or near a newsroom, it seems ironic that this now has to happen on a picket line or at a rally.
While online meetings do allow involvement for people for whom travel would either be difficult or impossible, the current situation – where offices have closed and people work in isolation from home – means the branch’s monthly social gatherings are far more important for members’ mental health and our collective union strength and cohension.