Striking journalists could link the private and public sectors

This morning I spent some time with pickets outside the South London Guardian office in Sutton.
It was bleak, it was pouring with rain. I was proud of my fellow National Union of Journalists' members battle to save local newspapers from the butchers who own them.
Another round of redundancies had pushed these proud workers over the edge.
The strike was their response - with picket lines in Sutton and Twickenham.
Local papers make money for the corporations that run them - in this case the American-owned Newsquest.
But newspaper bosses have given up trying to provide any sort of service to the communities they milk for cash.
Here's an article I wrote about it in 2005
Journalists at North London and Herts Newspapers, owned by Tindle Newspapers, struck in April because staff numbers had been halved.
Someone else is leaving the Enfiled-based firm. There is no sign of a replacement.
The nine NUJ members left have re-balloted and voted unanimously for more strike action.
So both these chapels - workplace branches - have ballots that would allow them to take lawful strike action on Thursday June 30 when 750,000 other trade unionist are already due to walk out .
The NUJ is a bottom up democracy. These journalists will - rightly - decide their own next move.
But I think it would be brilliant if they joined the June 30 action.
It would strike back at a ruling elite trying to turn private and public sector workers against each other.
It would be a great PR opportunity as the first private sector workers to join the strike.
It would create a massive audience for the campiagn to save local journalism among the members of the other unions already taking part - the National Union of Teachers (NUT), Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), University and College Union (UCU), and Public and Commercial Services union (PCS).
And it would give an opportunity to argue that local media is a vital service, holding acommunities together by publicising and scrutinising the vital work of the other public servants striking on June 30.

The professor, his wife, her job, and a free house

A teaching union wants the Welsh Asssembly to investigate the appointment of a university boss’s wife to a highly-paid new job at the same institution.
Professor John Hughes has just taken up the post of vice chancellor at Bangor University, north Wales.
His wife Xinyu Wu has been appointed the university’s first director of international development on a salary of £75,000.
The couple will live in a £475,000 house, bought by their employer.
Philip Dixon, director in Wales of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), told the Western Mail newspaper: “It is a miraculous coincidence that these two people should find two highly paid jobs at the same institution at the same time.”
Possibly not. Professor Hughes was previously president of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where Wu was director of the international office
Dixon from the ATL went on: “This comes as university budgets are being slashed in a way they have never been slashed before.
“It seems extraordinary that a new post is being created at this time. I am not aware that Bangor University has any problems recruiting foreign students.
“I think the assembly government should put our minds at rest by having a look at this matter."
Bangor University said there was no cause for concern.