The Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ), the vanguard of the professional and trade union movement of working journalists in Andhra Pradesh, is celebrating its Golden Jubilee year. Founded in 1957 after amalgamation of Andhra Union of Working Journalists and All Hyderabad Journalists Union, traversed a long way and reached a mile stone of Golden Jubilee. The Editor of Editors and father of working journalists professional and trade union movement in the country, the redoubtable M Chalapathi Rau, endearingly called MC, inaugurated the Union at an impressive ceremony held in the majestic Jubilee Hall, Public Gardens, Hyderabad on 17th August 1957.

The spectacular growth of APUWJ can be gauged from the fact that, starting with mere 35 members, it now has about 8000 members. The who is who of the Eminent journalists of Andhra Pradesh, past and present, are associated with this great organization at one time or other in its journey of 50 years.

Even though the Union was founded in 1957 consequent on the formation of linguistic states, its legacy is much longer dating back to 1930s. The Andhra Journalists Association was founded in 1935. Desoddharaka Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao Pantulu, the founder-editor of Andhra Patrika, presided over its first conference held at Vijayawada. The Deccan Journalists Association was the forerunner of the All Hyderabad Working Journalists Union and came into being in the ‘ Forties.

The Andhra Journalists Association was waxing and waning between 1935 and 1953. After the formation of Andhra state, it became Andhra Union of Working Journalists. The well meaning journalists leaders of the time started exploring the chances of bringing the all the Telugu speaking journalists under the umbrella of one organization. They initiated talks with journalists at Hyderabad. Later the proposed integration of Telugu-speaking people gave a fillip to the move for the unification of all journalists under one banner. A convention of Working Journalists of Telangana area was convened in Hyderabad in 1955, where it was decided to invite the two Unions to amalgamate into one Union. Thus the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) was born in 1957 and since been the only recognized union working journalists for the entire state.

Presently, the APUWJ with a membership of about 8,000 working journalists is the biggest Union of working journalists in the country. Its history is full of heroic struggles and labour of love and pain of its leaders and members. The impressive growth of the APUWJ could be judged from the fact that it started with a mere 35 members way back in 1955 to 913 in 1986 and steadily increased to 6000 members in 2005 and now it is 8,000. This great growth is because of the inherent belief and faith reposed by the members of the journalist fraternity in the state on the banner of Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ). With units in all districts of the state, the APUWJ is a fighting machine ever ready to defend the journalists from attacks of managements and fight for better living and working conditions for its members. Besides, it always stood in the forefront to defend the freedom of the press and other democratic rights of the working people. In this battle the Union lost four precious lives of its members, Mallepula Narender (Nizamabad), Gulam Rasool (Nalgonda) and Chada Sridhar Reddy (Nalgonda) V. Yadagiri (Medak) and K. Nagaraju (Srikakulam).

During the ‘sixties, the activities of the APUWJ expanded manifold and the building leased by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, where it was housed, was found to be too small to accommodate the offices of the APUWJ and its sister organizations. It built its own huge three-storeyed building in the heart of Hyderabad at Basheerbagh abetting the Fateh Maidan, Lalbahadur Stadium in 500 sq. yards of land leased to it by the Government of Andhra Pradesh on a long-term basis in 1970 and named it as Deshoddharaka Bhawan. This could be possible only because of the generous help extended by the successive Chief Ministers of the state. In 1969, the then Chief Minister, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy allotted the land and extended financial help for the construction of the building. Later Chief Minister, Jalagam Vengala Rao, Marri Chenna Reddy, T. Anjaiah, N. Janardhan Reddy and N.T. Rama Rao sanctioned matching grants to build the Auditorium and renovation.

The Deshoddharaka Bhavan, now can boast of having modern facilities no other journalists union office in the country has . It has a twenty-four hours UNI teleprinter news service, fax machine and Internet connection. It has a library named after M Chalapathi Rau and a 200-seat auditorium and Press Conference Hall. The building houses the offices of its sponsored organizations also.
The APUWJ had co-coordinated its activities with those of the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), since its inception and its predecessor all India organization founded by M. Chalapathi Rau. The IJU has united Working Journalists in the country under its banner and through its struggles and service, evolved itself into an institution in which the aspirations and ideals of Working Journalists can find fulfillment.

It is no exaggeration to state that in the development and growth of IJU to its present stature the APUWJ played a prominent and earnest role and helped to mould its policies so that not only the Working Journalists employed in the metropolitan centres of publication, but also the underdog of the profession, the rural correspondent employed in the remote mofussil centres. It is always in the forefront to get his legitimate due in the various statutory measures for the benefit and welfare of all those in the profession.
Though the leaders and members of the APUWJ belongs to different political faiths and ideologies, they never allowed their individual opinions to come in the way of common and united endeavors in the interests of the Union. The APUWJ has always maintained fraternal relations with all central trade union organizations of different political hues and influences. The Union never hesitated to express its opinion against the attempts of the Governments in different states and the centre, curbing the civil rights and freedom of the Press. Apart from strikes and agitations in Eenadu, Andhra Jyothi, Andhra Prabha and Indian Express in 70’s and 80’s. Following are some of the recent achievements.

The Management of Udayam, a popular Telugu daily was closed down illegally on May 23, 1995. This arbitrary action of the management resulted in the loss of employment to nearly 1000 workers and staff apart from 2,000 others whose livelihood depended on the newspaper. The APUWJ’s efforts culminated in success with the Government issuing orders declaring the temporary closure as illegal.

The APUWJ waged a valiant struggle along with the Employees Union of Andhra Patrika when the management in 1992 closed it down. On the efforts of the Union, the new management of Andhra Patrika, one of the oldest Telugu dailies paid all the dues of the employees amounting to about one crore of rupees.

The reopening Andhra Jyothi, the 40 years age-old leading newspaper in Telugu, was a landmark achievement of APUWJ. The management declared lockout on 31.12.2000 when the employees demanded payment of wages for days worked The APUWJ and A.P. Newspaper Employees Federation (APNEF) and Andhra Jyothi Employees Union’s Coordination Committee made intensive efforts to get the daily published again. The new management came forward to reopen the daily on Ist August, 2002 and took several measures which ultimately benefited its employees.

The 60 years old Andhra Prabha, Telugu daily newspaper, published by the Express Group was taken over by Vasavi Communications Ltd. The management tried to evade its responsibility to settle the accounts of the employees who had resigned. It was also not paying salaries regularly to its employees on rolls. Several other statutory benefits were being denied. The APUWJ took up the matter with the Chief Minister and sought his intervention. The APUWJ and Andhra Prabha Employees Unions Coordination Committee fought the case successfully.

At the instance of the APUWJ, the State Government established a welfare fund with a corpus fund of Rs. 50 lakhs. The fund is meant for assisting journalists in distress and monthly pension to wives of deceased journalists. In this year alone, 51 journalists and their families were granted financial assistance and pension.

It is a matter of pride for our Union that its senior leader and Secretary - General of IJU, K. Sreenivas Reddy, was elected for consecutive second term as a Member of the Press Council of India, a watchdog body for the media in the country. It is for the first time that a working journalist from Andhra Pradesh was elected to the PCI.

One of the senior leaders of our Union, Devulapalli Amar was re-appointed as Chairman of Press Academy of Andhra Pradesh for second consecutive term.