Two former NUJ presidents have launched a national news service carrying stories, features and comment about trade unions.
Union news was founded recently by freelance writer Tim Lezard and former BBC producer Pete Murray to cover industrial issues often overlooked by the mainstream media.
The site also carries stories on industrial, legal and academic issues, as well as arts previews, reviews and interviews. It is not affiliated to any political party.
Tim Lezard said: “There’s so much more to trade unions than strikes, and our coverage will reflect that. We’ll be reporting on issues and campaigns both inside and outside of the workplace. We are the active voice for trade unionists.”
Pete Murray said: “We’re both long-time union activists as well as journalists and that experience will inform all our reporting. We'll apply a maxim of 'investigate, collaborate, agitate' and we hope our work will help build on the wave of activism in the UK as well as simply report on it.”
Tim Lezard is a campaigning journalist and anti-fascist who has written extensively about human rights, trade unions, equality, asylum seekers and the BNP. Elected president of the NUJ in 2005 and chair of the south west TUC in 2009, he has also reported from Iraq, Ukraine, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Pete Murray is a film maker, trade unionist and political activist. Also a former president of the NUJ, he is an active supporter of labour movement, anti-cuts and anti-war campaigns in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, where he lives.