Michelle Stanistreet joins TUC executive
The trade union movement agreed today to back the NUJ's News Recovery Plan.
The NUJ's general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, will now be joining the TUC's executive committee going forward. Michelle said:
"At a time of huge challenges, with workers turning to the trade union movement in ever-growing numbers, I'm proud to join the TUC executive committee and look forward to getting further involved in the TUC's vital work to defend and protect the interests of workers across the UK."
The second NUJ motion was passed today at TUC Congress, yesterday the TUC agreed to offer support to journalists at Iran International. Today's motion focused on the crisis in the media industry. TUC Congress agreed the importance of "trustworthy, relevant, impartial news" for democracy, particularly during a health crisis – something recognised during the coronavirus pandemic by the designation of journalists as key workers.
The NUJ's motion highlighted the news industry is under "unprecedented strain" with widescale cuts and redundancies taking place aimed at grassroots journalistic roles.
The TUC Congress welcomed the publication of the NUJ's News Recovery Plan in April, aimed at tackling the existing fault-lines in the sector with a series of measures intended to reconfigure the news industry and ensure it is firmly rooted in the public good.
The trade union movement today agreed to back a campaign for:
- Tech giants to pay their way, after years of exploiting editorial content without paying for its creation, through a digital information levy
- Government investment in public interest news; through arms-length funding mechanisms, with no public funding to any company making redundancies, paying out dividends or resisting union recognition
- Tax breaks for news subscriptions and support for new media start-ups
- Widescale media literacy campaign to tackle disinformation and fake news
- Greater plurality in the media and tighter ownership regulation
- Support for public service broadcasting and independent oversight of the BBC's licence fee settlement to ensure it is free from government interference.