This event had the support of the EUROPEAN UNION

The participants

Trade union representatives from 20 countries affiliated to the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) participated at a seminar organised by the Education department of the European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education, Health and Safety in order to discuss recruitment and organising strategies.

The participants were welcomed in Budapest by Ms Judit Acsay and Mr Arpad Gyöngyösi on behalf of the Hungarian journalist trade unions.

Mr Arne König, president of the EFJ opened the seminar by stating the objectives:

Mrs Renate Schröder introduced an overview regarding the state of play of membership and recruitment in EFJ unions.

The crucial battle facing unions across Europe is how to recruit and organise journalists in a difficult and changing employment environment. In many countries unions are losing members as permanent jobs are cut, but at the same time the number of jobs in journalism is growing. The problem is that most of these jobs are precarious and unprotected, with no meaningful employment protection. There is at the same time a process of change within the economy that is seeing new players in ownership.

 What role can the EFJ play in helping our unions to confront the challenge of organising new groups of workers and confronting the changing market economy as it affects media?

 Organising is no longer so easy. Changes in the structure of the industry and the increase in freelancing and multi-skilled journalism have their own impact on collective bargaining and organising opportunities. However, some of our member unions are doing very well and continue to increase their membership. Others face increasing problems.

 Gunter Haake, dju in ver.di, Germany and Judith Reitstätter, DJU, Austria introduced their national experiences about how to reach out to freelances/new media and the young. Download the presentations from the Documents section of this Web Site.

In working groups the participants exchanged about trade unions and membership discussing (1) Recruiting at the workplace, (2) Unions and Servicing: How to best adapt to satisfy members with increasing demands? (union structures; training of staff etc…)

A discussion about how to reach out to an increasing number of female journalist and how to keep them active in union structures was introduced by Mona Askerød, Norwegian Union of Journalists

The specific needs an views of young freelance journalists was debated during a roundtable chaired by Gerhard Moser, Austria involving

Péter Bálint Langmár, Rita Szieben, Eva Szappanos, Gabriella Horn and Esther Lausek from Hungary.

How trade unions are working in order to improve their public image in Hungary and Lithuania was presented by Judit Acsay, MUOSZ and Jonas Staselis, Vice President of Lithuanian Union of Journalists. And the Special Report on Labour Relations in Media was introduced by Mr Sandor Orban, Director of South East European Network for Professionalisation of the Media in the SEENPM-member countries. Download the report

That Web Sites can be effective tools for trade unions to reach and recruit new members was showed by Nicole von  Stockert, DJV, Germany and Mayke Apotheker, NVJ, The Netherlands. Download the presentations from the Documents section of this Web Site

On the basis of the discussions during this seminar, a draft action plan was introduced by Renate Schröder, Arne Köning and Heikki Jokinen. Several amendments were proposed by the participants.

Useful links:

European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education, Health & Safety

European Trade Union Confederation

http://www.ifj.org/

www.seenpm.org

http://ijc.md

And a few other links to more pictures:

http://budapest08.uth.ch/thumb4.html
http://budapest08.uth.ch/thumb5.html
http://budapest08.uth.ch/thumb6.html