How the NUJ chapel defended Chinese journalists at the Financial Times

In a story of how union action can force management turnaround, Nation Union of Journalist (NUJ) members at the FT campaigned for the rights of their Chinese colleagues.

Plans were in place to move four Chinese journalists to China and cut their pay by up to 50 per cent. Following union action, management U-turned.

David Crouch, father of chapel at the Financial Times explains how they did it. This article originally appeared on the NUJ Left website.

Chinese wall
There have been four Chinese journalists in the newsroom for seven years who have been establishing a Chinese-language FT website, which started to make money last year for the first time. The operation was set up in London to have a competitive advantage over websites based in China, because of the censorship.

Two of the journalists are UK citizens with their children at school and with mortgages and one has permanent residency rights. Although the four work in the newsroom, they have substantially worse terms and conditions. But until recently the union had not done anything for them - there was an imaginary Chinese wall between us.

However, one of the journalists had joined the union last summer as a result of our campaign over redundancies, a spin-off from which was that we started negotiating on their behalf, and won them sabbaticals like the rest of us (i.e. an extra month's holiday every four years) and a promise from management to look again at their working hours and pay. On the back of these benefits, the other Chinese journalists joined.

A month ago FT management told the four that they must relocate to Beijing by the end of March (i.e. get them off the books by the new financial year) and accept a 30 to 50 per cent pay cut - or take redundancy. They were devastated but we all decided to dig in our heels over the issue.

They had received a lot of encouragement from the 18-strong chapel committee at the FT, which has been built up over several years, plus some experienced activists who had joined the paper.

But the best chapel committee on earth won't win a battle like this without a strong mood on the ground. The journalists' response was electric. After we circulated an email to all staff announcing a chapel meeting two days later, we were flooded with messages of support.

We had a clear and strong arguments - management appeared to be unaware of considerable problems with their plan, such as a Chinese law that prevents its citizens working as journalists for foreign media outlets.

Chapel meeting
The chapel meeting was big – more than 80 people – and the newsroom must have been deserted. We welcomed the Chinese journalists to the chapel, and said we felt that we all shared a certain amount of responsibility for their situation because we'd left them languishing in a corner for so many years.

They spoke brilliantly – it is so much easier to defend people who are up for it. In the ensuing discussion, a trainee journalist said that the deal on offer was so bad that we couldn't just talk about sweetening it - it had to be withdrawn altogether.

A motion was hurriedly proposed from the floor: "We condemn the outrageous treatment of journalists on FT Chinese. We demand no redundancies on FT Chinese and that the journalists be placed on the same terms and conditions as the rest of FT editorial. It is unconscionable that the FT is sending FT Chinese journalists into harm's way. We will ballot for industrial action if these demands are not met."

It was passed unanimously and with spontaneous applause. We went straight from there into a meeting with management. Journalists took it upon themselves to write to senior management and complain. Emails were flying around all over the place.

Stunned
I'm not sure who was the most stunned, the Chinese journalists or the chapel committee. Last year it had taken five weeks of leafleting, a visit from Tony Benn and a "day of action" to build a mandatory meeting of 130 members who voted to ballot for action over redundancies. This time it happened with two emails in three days.

Journalists felt that a line had been crossed. The FT has been, and still is, a great place to work, but we are subject to the same pressures that everyone is facing in the industry. If journalists could be treated like this, what was in store for the rest of us further down the line? Also there was an unpleasant smell about it - would a group of four European men be treated in the same way?

All this took place on the eve of the Chinese New Year - the year of the tiger and also half-term school holidays. Over the weekend the tone from management changed; asking us to wait until both holidays were over. One of the Chinese journalists wrote a stunning email to all staff: the message was getting through.

Then we were given the good news - no compulsory moves to China, and negotiations on pay and conditions. Four jobs saved.

Clear cut victory
This is a much more clear cut victory than the one we had over redundancies last year when we agreed to so many voluntaries that people have been overworked ever since. This is a rare total victory – four people's lives were about to be ruined but chapel unity prevented it from happening.

Strong union organisation over the years - the FT was an island of it while everywhere else the union was being derecognised - has also maintained relatively decent relations between management and staff, although the recession is straining them to the limit.

The outcome stands the chapel in good stead for future upheavals. There's one problem, though - we have ordered 250 metal badges saying "Hands off FT Chinese!" with a picture of a tiger, but no longer have any need to wear them. We are proposing to the chapel that one day next week we all wear a badge to celebrate the outcome.

I am very proud to be a member of the FT NUJ chapel.

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