Notts tight key at NUJ ADM

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NUJ members meet in Ayr next week for their annual conference with the question of the reinstatement of Nottingham journalists, sacked during the provincial journalists' strike, likely to be high on the agenda.

An emergency motion from Leicester calls for a national one day stoppage by all NUJ members in support of the sacked members.

But the fate of the Nottingham 28 will be central to every discussion on the handling of the seven week strike, which ended in January. Motions from Bristol and Swindon both Scene at a Nottingham mass criticise the return to work, the failure of the NEC to members that the future of Nottingham journalists had been secured.

Court rulings

Two motions from Oxford, one an emergency motion, attack recent court rulings which inhibit the right to impose blacking and one calls on the union to disregard ail such 'legal' limits on the right to take action, whether strikes, blacking or picketing.

A motion from the Magazine branch, which has been backed in substance by the national executive, call on the union to and tell the not withdraw from the Press Council, publicise instead its own code of conduct, and propose a new body to handle complaints against the press.

Although the terms of this new body are left Vague, this motion is likely to invoke the most united opposition from the right in the union, backed by those who claim to occupy the middle ground.

The Press Council, a joint body of employers, union members and others (usually more employers) is one of the ways in which the NUJ has historically given backing to the claims of the employers to run a free press. A decision to break from this body will be a step forward for the NUJ.

A motion from Sheffield calls for the election of officials every three years, by telling the NEC to bring such a proposal to the 1980 conference la rule changing conference).

The standing orders committee this year has excelled itself. Not only did it introduce a bureaucratic procedure which threatened to axe many motions off the agenda but it has ruled out of order both motions on Ireland on the grounds that they are not of interest to the membership.

A motion against the public expenditure cuts and even a pious expression in support of the International Year of the Child received the same treatment.

A motion in support of Human Rights is included. The further those rights from Ireland the better so far as the standing orders committee is concerned.