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That title may sound like the warning of your old draconian school teacher. But still it makes sense and it was a clear message coming from delegates to the Second Zonal Convention of the Association of Radio and Television Employees, ARTEE, held in Shillong, India. As Sri Manas Choudhury, MLA, the Chief Guest, said at the opening,' if anyone tells you they are an expert on the North East India, do not believe them. The best you can be is an expert on a small part of the North East. Nobody is an expert on all of it.' It is a part of India with massive cultural, historical, language, religious and tradition diversity. Sometimes it may seem remote from the rest of India and it has in the past been the scene for deeply divided politics giving rise to armed revolt and violence.



And no union can escape such divergences hence the importance to really listen to members. And that was what the ARTEE leadership, Anil Kumar, President, Umesh Chandra, General Secretary and other officers of the national union did. And more. Much of the two days was spent by the officials listening to and immediately responding to delegates contributions, problems and questions.



And there were many issues in addition to those shared by all union members nationally to do with salaries and grading and status and the need to protect public service broadcasting. In the North East there is a feeling that local people face special difficulties with regard to recruitment and promotion and are demanding a special one time recruitment of new employees confined to people just from the region not open to all India; there are continuing problems working in remote stations and related to transfers within the region; there are real dangers of security, kidnap and extortion for members in some areas.



The UNI Deputy General Secretary speaking at the end of the convention made a plea to continue the struggle to maintain the public service but also to reach out to bring into unions the workers employed at the hundreds of private TV and radio stations springing up throughout India.



Many of these issues were raised in the closing session in the presence of Sri V. Shivakumar, the Board member for personal for the Indian Broadcasting Authority, Prasar Bharati. He commented on the issues raised and committed to early meetings with the union leaders to seek solutions.