All of these are a part of becoming an activist in BECTU and Annual Conference is the time each year that the union needs you the most.

We need you to set the agenda, make the decisions, discuss the issues and to meet, chat, enjoy your friends and colleagues.

These are the key experiences of conference and the formal structure that can seem so intimidating is just there to make the time spent fair and as efficient as possible.

This yearʼs conference is a Rule’s Revision Conference where rule changes from Branches and the National Executive Committee are put to the members to vote on.

The rule changes can be fundamental to the aims of the union or simple housekeeping to ensure clarity of the Rules.

The rule changes allow the union to stay ontemporary.

The next key decisions are the propositions which talk to the aims and goals of the union in the years coming.

It was through a vote at conference that the union decided to employ a special official for training and to have a Womenʼs Conference.

Propositions can come from the NEC or from branches. The NEC will have a view on all of the motions. Well you did elect us to have opinions and to pay attention to how the union is run!

The NEC will have someone speak on each. They will support it, oppose it, or ask for it to be ‘remittedʼ.

When the NEC asks for remission, the President (thatʼs me) will ask, before the Branch delegate speaks proposing the motion, whether the Branch is willing to remit the motion.

If the proposition is remitted, the NEC has undertaken to look at the proposition and work as best they can for its aims, in full or in part, and they will report back to next yearʼs Conference.

We take the various parts of the Annual Report in blocks and ask delegates that want to speak to paragraphs of the Report to inform the Standing Orders Committee before the conference begins.

This has sped up the running of Conference and allowed time for workshops.

This year it will mean that we can have both an Annual and Rules Conference in the same day, but it is this discipline that ensure that we get to all of the propositions.

So we need you to read the document before you arrive (not like my usual
which is reading the night before the meeting) and contact the SOC to tell them if you want to comment on a paragraph.

We know that we have a lot of work to get through and Iʼm warning you that we have the facility to add another thirty or more minutes onto Conference to finish business.

This is a simple explanation of the workings of our Annual Conference.

But BECTU wants to make the time we have and the money spent as interesting and useful as possible by streamlining presentations and giving time to workshops.

The workshops are a great way to learn, discuss with others and raise questions about the issues facing our industry in an informal setting.

In years past we have held ones on new entrants and training, digital copyright, and BECTUʼs website.

This years we are holding two: organising for the next 20 yearsʼ and representing members with the new Equality Act.

This will be my first time chairing an Annual Conference. I know that there are some great people around me to ensure that I run the Conference well. My aims are to facilitate the members to have a fair and democratic discussions on the issues of our union.

Iʼm looking forward to Conference. Iʼm looking forward to meeting delegates and finding out what interest them; at working hard to bring the union forward and relaxing hard with all my friends, new and old.

See you there.

One was being asked to take on a role – surprise, surprise as secretary – and the mentoring and friendships made on my branch committee, and later on divisional committee.

Another was participating and learning about the union at Women’s Conferences.

Looking back, the most important reason was being asked to participate. All the others flowed from that.

We recruit members and retain members when we ask: ask them to join; ask you to help with a simple task; ask people to an event, a training day, or a freelance fair.

BECTU provides a number of avenues for learning about the union and developing your skills as a union representative. The training department run an impressive array of courses under the two broad headings of “Trade Union Education” and “Vocational Education”. Some are brought to your region or workplace, some are held in head office.

Training is a vibrant and exciting service of the union to its members. One of the easiest answers to colleagues not yet in the union who ask what it provides is: “Look at our Training Courses. Any of them will help you increase your skills.”

BECTU has also recognised the unique issues facing women working in our industries. A survey of the media industry by Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the Creative Media Industries, showed that 5000 women left the industry between 2006 and 2009. In that period just 750 men left.

A majority of the women were in their thirties: by my reading, women who had a number of years of skilled work behind them and for various reasons were finding the industry to difficult to stay in.

BECTU believes that finding and supporting these women before they leave the industry will insure that we have an industry that takes equality seriously. It’s why we hold a Women’s Conferences – which have also been key to increasing the number of women active in the union, on branches, in Divisions and at Annual Conference.

I believe also it has been a very successful tool at retaining women in the union. A lot of those women who left the industry did so because of redundancies and a shrinking workforce.

We know that there are tough times ahead, especially for freelance members.

That brings me to BECTU’s central role, which is to fight the industrial issues for all members: to go for the best pay and conditions and working environment.

Most of the major employers want to shed permanent employees and have a freelance workforce. BECTU has been fighting hard, and with successes, to bring a fair and equitable working environment to the freelance market.

Our signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the BBC for a Freelance Agreement has been a hard-fought win. We aim to improve the working environment of our members working for the BBC as freelancers and to set a national standard of pay and conditions.

As part of this Memorandum, a standardised recognition agreement and process have also been agreed, to deal with pay, hours and holidays where BECTU can demonstrate they have at least 35 per cent of a workforce in membership.

BECTU’s ability to demonstrate membership to managements is key. It is key to our wining improvements; to our ability to represent members; to our survival as a union.

In my experience some non-members assume the industrial benefits will come to them, whether they join the union or not.

But if we don’t reach that magic number of 35 per cent we won’t be able to negotiate under that BBC Memorandum of Understanding – and pay, hours and holidays will fall behind, for them too.

We need our members to say to those who want the benefits but don’t want to pay the dues that their idea of a free ride risks making things worse for everyone, not just them.

And for those who just haven’t thought about it yet, we need to just start asking everyone, “Have you joined BECTU yet? We need you, to make sure we can all get this better deal.”

The Conservatives clearly have no commitment to the arts in our communities and nations.

They talked of maintaining a vibrant cultural sector – but in the
nine commitments they put forward for the field of Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport there were but two goals for culture: to maintain free entry to national museums and galleries and to “cut red tape to encourage the performance of more live music”. Those were bleak and limited goals if the target was indeed a vibrant culture.

Yet there are many studies demonstrating that investment in the arts reaps benefits in jobs, economic growth, increased government revenue – and, especially, a quality of life that positions communities to become active members of the 21st-century creative economy.

We are hearing from all quarters that the way forward is through a “knowledge economy”: but a key part of the knowledge must be creative. To build their skills to compete in the global economy, creative practitioners must practice, and to practice they need to work!

The study Arts and Economic Prosperity, from Americans for the Arts, shows that across the US every $1 invested by local, state and federal government is returned 7 times.

The Arts Council of England, along with other arts and heritage organisations, launched Cultural Capital – A Manifesto for the Future on 1 April this year. Its subtitle is “Investing in culture will build Britain’s social and economic recovery”.

It is an intelligent and reasoned argument of the value of the arts to the economy of the country. It was launched with much fanfare: but little seems to have come of it.

The Coalition Government seems to wants to drip-feed its cuts and reorganisations. I might be being cynical here, but this does make it very difficult for high profile campaigns.

Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and former director of the National Theatre, said at an awards ceremony on 28 November: “I feel really ill at the thought of 50 years being thrown away.” He believes that the attitude of the government is that the arts can be cut because they are successful and says “We’ve got to make noises, loud noises…”

Our members in theatres and arts centres are worried, rightly. The government’s attitude seems to be, “Go and find yourself a patron. We can fund our arts like they do in America.”

But some top philanthropists have said this won’t work. For one thing, we don’t have the tax laws to encourage donations on the scale necessary. For another, if we are talking about funding, tickets to a Broadway show can be more than £80 and the top price for the Metropolitan Opera in New York can be £270 – though the Metropolitan Opera is the most-endowed arts organisations in the world, it says that donations are down.

Sir Nicholas Hynter, the present National Theatre director, has said,
“The National Theatre’s production of War Horse, which is generating a great deal of revenue for both us and the private sector, would have been impossible without sustained investment allowing us to create it over the course of 18 months of workshops.”

Mr Murdoch is quoted in the Guardian as saying that a free society “required an independent press: turbulent, inquiring, bustling and free. That’s why our journalism is hard-driving and questioning of authority. And so are our journalists.” It was reported that the speech was given in front of at least five cabinet ministers.

In the United States, four of the next Republican Party hopefuls for the 2012 Presidential elections work for one news organisation: Fox News, part of the Murdoch’s News Corporation empire. This has been stirring up a lot of controversy lately, with the debate reaching the New York Times and Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman.

Kicking off the discussions was a long and thoughtful article in Politico.com pointing out that the four Republican Party hopefuls were Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. Fox News employs them as paid contributors and they have contracts forbidding them from appearing on any TV network but Fox.

So not only is Fox News paying them and giving them a platform to speak directly to voters, Politico.com reports that producers at C-Span, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC all report they were told they must get Fox’s permission to interview candidates, when these broadcasters wanted ‘to practice some hard-driving and questioning’ journalism. And that permission has been denied by Fox.

The only TV news organisation’s journalist allowed to interview the potential candidates are their colleagues at Fox. Sarah Palin especially seems to be wedded to the station.

“Speak through Fox News” is Palin’s advice offered to ‘Tea Party’ backed Senatorial candidate, Christine O’Donnell, (the one who admitted to “dabbling in witchcraft” but also says “God is the reason I’m running”). Not surprisingly Palin’s advice was given on a Fox programme.

Candidates not employed by Fox are concerned. Politico.com quotes one aide “I wish we could get that much airtime, but, oh yeah, we don’t get a paycheck”.

In the UK we have (Murdoch owned) News of the World’s ‘hard-driving journalism’ ending with the journalist in jail for illegal wire tapping. And we have the hard-driving organisation wanting to take over full control of BSkyB.

Murdoch still seems to see himself as the David fighting the Goliaths of the world. He is quoted as saying, “When the upstart is too successful, somehow the old interests surface, and restrictions on growth are proposed or imposed. That’s an issue for my company.”

I find it very hard to see his ‘company’ as upstarts. He has major news paper chains in five countries including Australia, the US and UK.

He has major broadcasting throughout the world and ties and tentacles into almost any market that might be profitable.

What concerns me is his ‘economic model’: that belief that the bottom line is not ‘questioning of authority’ but ensuring that a company is always placed to influence those who have a say in regulating the industry – whether by hiring potential Presidents or having senior ex-staff as key advisors in government.

He must be pleased with this government’s decision to cut funding to the BBC by 16% and announcing major redundancy in the regulator Ofcom. It is surely a living legacy of Thatcher’s policies, cut, cut, cut.

I think I said this last time but I will say it again. These might be tough times but if we work together, keep the important issues on the table, talk to our friends and colleagues and participate in our union, we can make a difference.

It is as a union that we can challenge this rising tide that applauds devastating cuts.

BECTU’s first motion was composited with five other motions calling for a campaign to repeal the anti-trade union laws left from the Thatcher era. It is pathetic that 13 years of a Labour government allowed the laws and the restrictions they place on trade unions to be still in place. These laws especially attack trade unions abilities to hold legitimate strike actions, giving employers and the courts powers unprecedented in Europe.

You will probably remember the use BA put them to when it twice took injunctions to stop strikes, both times when the ballots questioned would have made no difference to ballot outcome.

The second time, in May of this year, because the union Unite did not use all means to tell members that there were 11 spoilt ballot papers out of a ballot of some 11,600 members.

Our colleagues in the NUJ were facing a similar injunction on the same day in May when their strike was halted because the employer’s claim that Johnston Press employed no journalists, despite a Johnston Press stamp on pay slips, the Johnston Press company handbook staff are issued, the JP grievance, disciplinary and health and safety policies that journalists are required to abide by. Johnston Press plc annual report even claims they employ 6,500 staff including journalists.

But when the NUJ challenged pay freezes, pension scheme closures, and the introduction of new technologies, Johnson Press claimed a multitude of subsidiary companies were the employers, not they, even though local managers have no powers to change these decisions.

These laws are allowing employers to overturn the democratic decisions of union members. No member takes the decision to strike lightly but it is an important tool. Especially in these times if the easy option is to change fundamentally the terms and conditions your employees work under, then that is the option employers will take.

We clearly see that the BBC is taking an easier option out of their pension problems but it is an issue with our freelance members too.

Freelance, short term/fixed term contracts all find it all but impossible to confront employers. Our experience is that once a serious dispute is raised for those working on these contracts, the minimum time from initiating an industrial dispute to being able to take action is 3 weeks. When your contract is for a few days or weeks, you have to either quit or just accept the conditions. This means that job after job an employer can impose unfair work practices but the issues can’t faced collectively.

Collective actions are how unions protect members. We work in an industry where all of us are concerned to be viewed as trouble makers. By working together we lesson the impact on all of us. And we need all the tools we have to fight the plans of the Con-Dem Government and its plans for the devastation of the public sector.

It is when we work collectively, it is when we challenge wrongs with as broad a campaign as possible that we can succeed. Hard times are not necessarily bad times if we can work collectively to challenge threats. Good luck to our colleagues in the BBC with their campaign ahead.

The BBC’s proposals are more like a 6.5 quake that has the potential to set off a tsunami than the tweaking of figures. It shifts the playing field for all, newcomers, middle managers, end of career techs. And by our calculations all will loose out. The feeling is they really don’t want you in their pension scheme.

The BBC Board are doing this at a time when the 50 top executives, including the director-general, are receiving a pension top-up payment of over £1 million this year. The top eleven executives cost £4.8 in total remunerations: Mark Thompson, D.G. £834,000; Mark Byford, Deputy D.G. £485,000; Jana Bennett, Director, Vision, £515,00; Zarin Patel, C.F.O., £429,000; Peter Salmon, Director, BBC North, £430,000. These figures are from the BBC’s website. I could keep going but it gets really depressing.

A management that will do anything it can to avoid a cap on executives pensions while saying the 19,000 staff members must shoulder the hard times by having there final salary pension scheme ended for new members and for existing staff their “final salary” calculation can only increase by 1% of whatever salary they are on April 1 2011 (April Fools Day) is cynical and greedy.

Members have asked how this fundamental, the calculation of what their salary is, of a final salary pension scheme can change?

We’ve had legal advice that it can be done because the employer defines what is salary for ‘pensionable calculations’. So when you joined a scheme thinking as you gained in skill and experience and were rewarded with the pay compensating for the work, this would lead to a comfortable retirement you were wrong (unless you make it into that top 50).

Remember too that pensions are described as pay deferred. If this scheme goes ahead your pay will be attacked from two fronts; pay freezes, token increases and less in your pension.

Also interesting is that the plan is proposed to start from the 1st of December 2010. As of May the BBC expected to be hiring over 500 for new jobs in Salford Quays, many from the 1st January 2011, the numbers probably increased by the latest announcement of the Breakfast Show moving to Salford too.

They really are ensuring the new employees or employees with a short time working need have no loyalty to an employer that puts it’s staff at such a disadvantage. We need to recruit so that when we confront management we can do it from a position of strength.

Make sure you vote in the ballot for strike action and that the ballot arrives in head office by the 1st of September. BECTU needs to know your views and to have the power of your vote behind them.

But it was not just a funding source. The UK Film Council was also there to promote and develop the British film industry.

That the Con-Dem government thought so little of the film industry that it would axe a major support body without consultation sends dangerous messages around the world. Film financing and producing is a long haul business. We’ve seen before that the threat to tax incentives can lead to a bad employment year.

The film industry bucked trends in the last years to show steady growth in revenue and in film attendance. This means employment. And employment means taxes are paid.

Is this government so enamoured of making sure government is ‘small’ that it will rush it’s way into destroying hard realised gains?

Unfortunately the answer is turning out to be yes.

It is funny how change seems to come in waves. Tony Lennon‘s last column [in Stage Screen and Radio] as President was written just before the elections and the future government was not known. There was a small hope for a Labour or Lib-Lab government. We know now the government but where, what and how the change in policies will hit our industries is only being played out. What is clear is that the cuts are coming and that it is through our union that we can fight them.

Tough times are not necessarily bad times but they are always made better by working collectively. This is the message we need to spread. One of our biggest danger is colleagues who figure our dues should cover their needs. For the union to be strong in negotiations and able to run campaigns we need members, especially active members. It is through our collective activities that we can have the greatest impact.

BECTU is your union. It is there to fight for you, if needed; to represent you in negotiations; to argue for fair and equable working conditions. BECTU needs your involvement, voting for your representatives, participating in internal debates on our policy on piracy, public debates on low pay/no pay ‘contracts’, arguing for the importance of community theatres, defending the BBC as the best and the brightest of public broadcasters (even in these overly challenging times).

BECTU is also where by becoming active

• you make friends,
• learn to and become confident speaking in public,
• become part of a negotiating team for better pay and conditions,
• are subsidised and supported to gain more training and learning,
• find others to campaign on issues affecting yourself, members and the greater political world,
• and find those that think long, involved discussions on the bandwidth needed for radio mikes is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in a pub.

We work in the culture and media industries, whether as caterers, sound recordist, stage hands, archivists, runners or directors. We are involved in educating, entertaining, informing and inspiring the public. Some of us work on our own, most of us work as part of a team. Some teams last a day, some a month or six, some for years. The commitment and standards our members strive to always achieve make us some of the best in the world. And that skill and talent is recognised in all corners of the world. We need the government to understand that it is our skilled members who make possible the arts and media that envisions our nations and is exported to the world. Cuts of up to £23 million in just the Arts Councils funding in one year will have a major negative impact on all the areas.

I believe for all of our members the argument that the arts is a creative force that is critical to the nation, that puts us on the international stage and brings benefits financial and spiritual is one we understand well. But it is true that the seed monies, the investments of public spending is crucial.

It is time for a campaign to argue the importance and benefit of the arts. Whether it is to ensure that the BBC continues to make the quality dramas/radio programmes, etc it is famous for, or that our local theatres and arts centres provide for our communities or that films are made here, we need for politicians and voters to understand that the arts can provide growth and employment. Arts Council UK says “In 2009 the 52 major theatres in central London, representing a mix of subsidised and commercial theatres and productions, had their best year ever, worth £504 million in box office receipts.” If the theatres did well, chances are the hotels, restaurants and others also did well, and the economy got through some tough times with a little more ease and grace.

These are some of the arguments we can use to fight the cuts that are hurting us.

The Guardian headlines their article Cash for Culture Can Boost UK Economy, and says “The alliance argued that the arts were a growth industry that could have a major impact on the economy with the help of a minimal but crucial public investment.”

I believe for all of our members the argument that the arts is a creative force that is critical to the nation, that puts us on the international stage and brings benefits financial and spiritual is one we understand well. But it is true that the seed monies, the investments of public spending is crucial.

It is time for a campaign to argue the importance and benefit of the arts. Whether it is to ensure that the BBC continues to make the quality dramas it is famous for, or that our local theatres and arts centres provide for our communities or that films are made here, we need for politicians and voters to understand that the arts can provide growth and employment. Arts Council UK says “In 2009 the 52 major theatres in central London, representing a mix of subsidised and commercial theatres and productions, had their best year ever, worth £504 million in box office receipts.”

These are the arguments we can use to fight the cuts that are hurting us.

I especially appreciate the argument being made for increased funding in building up to the Olympics in 2012, rather than all of the lottery funding heading to the London Olympics.

We will have a few weeks to shine internationally and to fail because we have not sustained the creative sector would be a waste that could damage our cultural credibility in the years that follow.

Well done to the Arts Council for launching the Manifesto and campaign and let’s ensure that our members are supporting and arguing the cause.

For our own BECTU campaigns and elections, I am asking for your vote as RPD’s representative on the NEC and for President of the union. Ballot papers were sent out last week and members have until the 30th of April to vote.

Please encourage your colleagues to post in those ballots.