NUJ joins TUC Women’s Conference event on assaults at work
On 5 March the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group held a fringe event at the TUC Women’s Conference on the theme ‘assaults at work.’
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, joined the panel chaired by Sarah Woolley, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) general secretary. Other speakers were Jackie Marshall (Prison Officers’ Association - POA); Annila Saghir (The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers - RMT); and Maria Chondrogianni (University and College Union - UCU).
Davison opened the discussion by introducing the room of around 80 delegates to the NUJ’s Journalists’ Safety Tracker. The union launched the tool as part of our ongoing engagement with the government through the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists. The Tracker allows journalists to report threats and abuse as well as capturing information on Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
Davison said: “It’s clear that journalists are the target of shocking abuse and harassment both online and in person, and this restricts their ability to carry out their work.
Davison said that gathering the data itself can be challenging because “abuse is unacceptably normalised”. Taking time to report incidents can be an additional emotional burden, “particularly in newsrooms where resources have been hollowed out over the years”. “The Tracker highlighted a worrying pattern of violent, graphic abuse at women journalists. In some instances, women reported daily rape and death threats.
Citing UNESCO statistics from 2025, Davison noted that 75 per cent of women journalists experienced online violence, while doing their jobs. The tracker revealed the majority of the online abuse they faced occurred on X/Twitter.
Davison shared the harrowing case of “one woman who received anonymous rape threats deleted the emails from her computer because of a ‘stiff upper lip’ culture in the office and felt too embarrassed to share it with anyone or escalate the issue.”
She said:
“This abuse has a fundamental impact on the individuals carrying out their work, but it also impacts all of us because it is fundamentally important that journalists have the ability to carry out their jobs.”
Left to right: Jackie Marshall, Sarah Woolley, Laura Davison, Annila Saghir, Maria Chondrogianni.
Following Davison’s speech, panellists shared similar stories of misogynist abuse experienced on a daily basis by union members working across various sectors.
Annila Saghir, RMT Women’s Advisory Committee vice-chair, explained why women workers sometimes struggle to report abuse: “It’s easy for women to find a reason as to why we have been assaulted and blame ourselves. Whereas a man wouldn’t. He would know he was assaulted and report it.”
Maria Chondrogianni, UCU president, spoke about other ways abuse can manifest in the workplace. She said: “Excessive workloads are an assault; threats of redundancy are an assault; zero-hour contracts are an assault. The majority of workers who experience and face these assaults are women: trans sisters, Black women, and disabled women - and that needs to stop. We deserve to be safe and protected in the workplace.”
The speakers closed the event by highlight the importance of providing tools similar to the NUJ’s Journalists’ Safety Tracker to allow members to report abuse safely and help end the cycle of workplace abuse.