After 59 years of fighting for the underdog, the NUJ has elected me as a Life Member

Fleetstreet legend and Mirror columnist, Paul Routledge, sends gentle tales from his West Yorkshire allotment, Mrs R’s pantry and the Old White Bear. This week, Paul is proud to have been elected me as Life Member of the NUJ for his work as Father of the Chapel fighting for the underdog

POLITICS, shmolitics. As the Labour faithful talk the talk in Liverpool, let me reprise Max Bygraves with another story.

While voters went to the polls this summer, a different mini-election was under way, and I’m the proud beneficiary. After 59 years of belonging, the National Union of Journalists has elected me as a Life Member.

Notification of the honour came through the post, with a printed certificate signed by general secretary Michelle Stanistreet. I was dead chuffed, I can tell you. We go back a long way, me and the NUJ. On the day I started at the Northern Despatch in Darlington, Co Durham, in July 1965, I asked two questions: where do I sit and could I join the union?

While still at Nottingham University, I’d worked unpaid on a Left-wing magazine called The Week. My job was to pull together info from shop stewards and activists around the country into a proper report – excellent training that aroused a lifelong interest in trade unionism.

More than an interest, a commitment. It took me to the dizzy heights of Labour Editor of The Times for 16 years, and Father of the NUJ Chapel [chairman of the office branch] at Times Newspapers.

In a secret ballot, I beat the shipping correspondent – a nice chap but seen as too much of a moderate. Not my style. Pay bargaining was hard but individual cases harder. It was rare to win against a management out to get rid of somebody.

Doing that job also cost me my day job, getting sacked by Rupert Murdoch’s minions for joining the printers’ strike at Wapping in 1986, when Times newspapers moved to a new site to smash the print unions. But I survived and je ne regrette rien. In fact, I’d do it all again.

Sometimes, you just have to say “No” to power. You don’t always get a certificate when you do but it’s nice when it happens.

Thank you, NUJ.