European Federation of Journalists EFJIFJ

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European Federation of Journalists (EFJ/IFJ)

Organising Journalists- The Recruitment
Challenge for European Unions Budapest, 4-6
April 2008
With the Support of the European Commission
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Survey onRecruitment and Organising in Journalism

• Coverage
• 23 countries
• 25 responses

Finland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Lithuania
UK Ireland
Netherlands
Belgium
Gemany
Slovaquia
France
Austria
Hungary
Switzerland
Croatia
Serbia
Italy
Portugal
Turkey
Greece
Slovenia
Cyprus
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Who responded?

• Over 172 000 members are covered by this
  questionnaire (majority in Germany60.000 and in
  Great Britain and Ireland 37.000).
• 19 trade unions one association and 5 say they
  are both union and professional association.

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Membership Development Figures

• 11 unions declare membership losses within last
  year(s) (both German unions gt1000 Austriagt500
  Swedengt350 UK losses within last year, but 8
  increases in period of 2001-2006).
• 11 unions declare membership increases Belgium
  Cyprus Norway (journalists in digital media)
  Denmark (700 new members within last 2 years from
  communication sector), Spain (Ela), Lithuania
  (120 last year) Portugal (few freelances from
  audiovisual sector) Turkey.

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Membership Development Categories

• Generally speaking new members are young and
  often freelances (confirmed from survey done in
  2006)
• In some unions, student members have been growing
  as well. (Majority accepts students with special
  status and special fee in Denmark they have the
  same status.) Exceptions are in Portugal, Greece,
  Cyprus, France (CGT), and Lithuania.
• Gender ratio In almost all unions more men than
  women with more women entering unions recently.
• In UK, in Serbia and in Turkey staff journalists
  numbers rose more than freelances numbers.
• Serbia (only union with no members in private
  media).

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Reasons for Leaving the Union

• Some have not made any research.
• Those who have, say
• (UK biggest reason is death)
• Changing job, that is leaving journalism
• Too expensive
• Retirement
• Esp. in CEE, staff journalists are forced into
  freelancing, very low salaries
• (Austria impact of merger of union and problems
  with data transfer)
• Changing culture among young (strangely only
  mentioned by Swiss colleagues)
• Problems with collective bargaining
• Turkey, Slovakia and Slovenia pressure from
  employers.
• In France it is a general trend leaving the
  unions (only in France? probably not).

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Sectors with difficulties recruiting new members

• Main problems, which almost all unions clicked
  OnlineWeb sector.
• Broadcasting second most difficult sector.
• Freelances third most difficult sector.
• Only three unions (dju in verdi, impressum in
  Switzerland and CFDT in France) face problems in
  newspaper sector. And in Lithuania in magazines.

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New Target Groups

• Many unions have not defined any target groups
  for recruitment and organising. Some are in the
  process (Slovakia meeting in April on this
  issue).
• Those who did
• Internet journalism (Hungary, Austria), new
  media, multimedia journalists
• Young journalists, also those who do not consider
  themselves as journalists
• Students
• Freelances as special target with special needs
  and services
• Online web, production companies (Norway)
• New staff in media companies (including foreign
  owned and private broadcasting (Croatia)
• Bigger media houses without union presentation
  (Slovenia)
• Regional media (Lithuania, Slovenia)
• Trade Press (Norway)
• Local media (Portugal)

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Recruitment Tools

• (Switzerland and to an extent Sweden
  underdeveloped recruitment culture up to now, as
  active recruitment was not needed, but now change
  in policy) some unions have not considered this
  subject at all (Greece, Italy..)
• Personal contacts (most unions), work place
  visits of trade union officers, strong work
  place representation is key say the Finnish
• Legal Assistance
• Telephone contacts
• Members magazines, websites, website with growing
  interactive media (NVJ)
• Advertisements (DK and NL) brochure with
  arguments for membership (Portugal inspired by
  NUJ!), Croatia (some get organised after reading
  the leaflet)
• Travel reduction (Portugal, Belgium) and other
  services including freelance insurances
• Special university project and contacts with the
  youth press (dju in ver.di), and NVJ academy (NL)
• Seminars language course (Slovakia).

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Training for Staff and Shop Stewards

• Some (9) do not do any training (lack of
  resources or no need)
• 14 respond with yes or intend to do so in the
  future such as
• Workshops on how to recruit new members
  (Austria)
• Database of members will be optimized (NVJ)
• Training for staff and lay officers, NUJ
  http//www.nujtraining.org.uk
• Training and Youth Project, training for
  broadcasting branch (dju, Germany)
• Summer regional workshops in Lithuania
• Working group dealing with recruitment (plan for
  future work, Norway)
• 8 days a year for each new shop steward
  (Denmark),
• Training for shop stewards and staff training
  planned for later this year (Sweden)
• Planned for next year (Turkey)
• Training seminar in May (Serbia).

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Shopping List for EFJ How can the EFJ/IFJ
help?

• Especially from members in CEE Exchange,
  contacts, learning from experience, seminars for
  new shop stewards and future trade union
  officials, seminars on the need to join a union
  for freelances (Croatia)
• Easy access to info from/about EFJ
• Experience about media development in Europe
  (Spain)
• Mutual assistance scheme in Europe would
  especially help freelances to get invoices paid
  abroad (NUJ)
• A more attractive IFJ International Press Card
  (dju in ver.di)
• More possibilities for International exchange
  also among normal members, more professional
  training offers at European level (dju in
  verdi)
• Analysis of new trends and habits around
  journalism (NVJ)
• Activities that strengthen and defend journalism
  as a profession (helping unions to be perceived
  as active defendants of the need and interests of
  journalists
• EFJ broshures in local languages
• Create a better network among EFJ members, esp.
  the young
• EFJ protests against government (Serbia).

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Recruitment and Organising

• Thank you for the answers given, your attention
  and hopefully enjoy the seminar and learn from
  others experiences!!!