Benefits versus losses at the Drogheda Independent

Respondents were asked the following question as part of survey question ten.

How much do you agree with the statement "The negotiated gains for staff reporters at the Drogheda Independent are worth the possible financial losses that might be faced by freelance photographers working for the title."
All respondents
NUJ members
Non-NUJ members
NI/ROI respondents
 
I strongly disagree with the statement 68.7%
76.5%
62.6%
88.5%
 
I mildly disagree with the statement 10.8%
9.3%
12.3%
3.8%
 
Neutral 12.7%
7.4%
16.8%
3.8%
 
I mildly agree with the statement 2.1%
1.2%
2.8%
3.8 %
 
I strongly agree with the statement. 5.7%
5.6%
5.6%
  0%
 

Additional comments left by NUJ members:

  • “An NUJ agreement should not just benefit the Chapel members, but the union as a whole, and it should not be detrimental to other sectors of the union, such as freelance or staff photographers. And as the agreement gives up staff rights to negotiate on future equipment and software installation, and abolishes any demarcations between job descriptions, that leaves a lot less upon which to have any strength in negotiations. Photographers and freelances may be minorities in the NUJ, but even minorities have inalienable rights, and within a union one of those rights is to have their livelihoods protected and not played off against the financial benefits to other union members (which is what has happened here). Otherwise unions would not have statements on “no compulsory redundancies”, because members who remain might benefit from other members being made compulsory redundant. Unions should follow “one for all and all for one”. And it is not just about financial losses to freelances and gains to staff reporters. There is the loss to freelances of part of their profession, career and their working lives. There is also the loss of quality, skill, experience and professionalism in press photography both by freelance and staff photographers (there won’t be any at the Drogheda Independent), which cant be adequately replaced by the paper’s reporters. That is a loss to both the paper, other staff left working there, and to the public the paper should serve. The fact is it should not be an either/or situation between freelance losses and staff gains. Either/or situations are what unions are supposed to protect all their members against.”
  • “The NUJ now has to decide whether freelance photographers are second class citizens expendable in the interests of staff writers, or to represent them as equals whose profession should be defended”
  • “All the issues surrounding the Drogheda Independent Agreement suggests that photographers (especially freelance) are not as valued as members of the NUJ as they should be and it may sing a warning that the Union won’t support them if it clashes with the interests of staff journalists”
  • “Photographers and Freelance members in general are the poor relatives of the NUJ family”