A Tale Of Woe From the outset, the printworkers faced enormous obstacles. Mike Power and Helen Hague assess the dispute that lasted a year

leet Street history was made Differences between the NGA, Sogat on January 24 1986, when and the NUJ prior to Wapping were 's News Inter- widening. Attempts to create one in- national printworkers at The dustrial union by various amalgama- Sun,F , and tion combinations had broken down and took strike action instead fratricidal, internecine warfare following overwhelming secret ballot had broken out between them about majorities. The new features were that whose members had the right to 'follow all 5,500 workers were instantly dismis- the job' into new technology. Disputes sed, and uniquely all four papers in the provincial press in Portsmouth, continued to be printed and distributed. Kent and Wolverhampton had witnes- Murdoch had secretly prepared the sed union members crossing each transfer of the papers to his new other's picket lines in order to take Wapping plant where the whole job over their former colleagues' jobs. could be undertaken without tradi- Five months before the dispute began tionally unionised printing and dis- the Sogat executive had sanctioned its Uphill struggle tribution staff. The Wapping plant negotiators to seek the transfer of The contained the most modern direct input Sun and News of the World to the new fered when the NUJ failed to get more typesetting equipment to enable jour- plant even if the other unions were than an initial 30 or so journalists to nalists to bypass NGA printworkers, opposed. However a shotgun marriage join the strike, although a steady and there existed an agreement with between the unions occurred as Mur- despondent trickle did gradually leave TNT road haulage to avoid Sogat doch's intentions became clear and his Wapping in the next few weeks. These distributors. The ground was also laid demands for a legally binding agree- defectors were often replaced by other to act against secondary solidarity ment, no closed shop, unfettered man- union members who had ignored the action by setting up a network of agerial authority and a no-strike deal appeals of their leadership to back the subsidiary companies through which were revealed. The unions responded strike and gladly accepted the in- injunctions could be issued and dam- with an unprecedented eleventh hour creased wages offered by Murdoch. ages claimed against union funds. offer to Murdoch which gave practical- Also the NUJ's sporadic picketing The unions centrally involved had ly all he wanted, but it was too late. efforts were generally limited to a few acted too late, even Murdoch admitted1 dedicated strikers and their suppor- that the strike would have been effec- Common cause in the face of Murdoch's ters. At the same time the TGWU was tive had it happened before Christmas, deunionising and deskilling did not unable to get its members not to cross as preparations then were less adv- extend to the EETPU. The militant Fleet the picket in their TNT lorries. anced at Wapping and pre-Christmas Street EETPU press branch members xtending solidarity by the two advertising in his papers had been were ignored by their leadership and key unions involved also heavy. However it was not Murdoch's were replaced by provincial members proved to be difficult. NGA preparedness or the initially slow union who were also trained to take over members who typeset and reaction that ultimately lost the year- printers' jobs. The collusion between printed Murdoch's supplements could long struggle for jobs and union the EETPU and Murdoch and the not be convinced to stop: both the recognition in the new plant. The defeat subsequent failure by the TUC general supplements were typeset a mile from was undoubtedly due to the failure to council to act against the electricians in Wapping. Only in Merseyside and deliver inter and intra union solidarity February 1986 was an early and major Clydeside did Sogat distribution mem- in a hostile legal, political and economic setback in the dispute. The later bers refuse to handle News Interna- environment. Equally the campaign for condemnation of the general council at tional's papers and then only for a short a reader boycott of the four papers had congress in September was not fol- time. The failure to win action in little effect and the police were able lowed up in time to impose any editorial, production and distribution confidently and brutally to break any discipline on the EETPU. or spread the dispute to the supple- effective picketing. Meanwhile another setback was suf- ments was crucial. As a result other

40 MARXISM TODAY MARCH 1987 Murdoch's increasing redundancy pay offers. When the dispute ended after a full year, 3,000 had stood by their unions and had not applied individually for their payment as News Internation- al had invited them to. This doggedness was responsible for the length of the dispute as it was clear that a large majority of the officials of all unions involved would have wrapped it up months earlier before the final injunc- 'The unions tions and sequestrations were responded threatened. with an un- rom the beginning the reader precedented boycott campaign gave pur- pose to local support groups eleventh and a means whereby sym- hour offer to pathetiFc individuals and organisations Murdoch could give help. However the theme of which gave the campaign remained narrow, asking for a boycott because Murdoch was a practically all bad employer who had sacked his he wanted, workforce after they had made him but it was millions. The content of his newspapers went unmentioned and their monopoly too late' and editorially unfree nature was largely ignored. This was in contrast to the outstanding efforts to gain rights of reply by the local chapels before the dispute when production workers chal- lenged editorial distortions. During the year and News of the World lost 150,000 and 300,000 copies per issue respectively, which is a small proportion of four and five million in each case. Many expressions of support gave genuine encourage- ment; this included the local authorities that banned Murdoch's papers from their libraries, the Scottish dockers who boycotted newsprint supplies and postal workers who would not deliver bingo cards. These small but heroic efforts could not, in themselves, have had a great effect, but all were subject to legal restraint, damage costs and areas of the struggle became more prevent effective mass picketing. union sequestration. The prominent. Appeals which came from some movement must campaign widely to The striking unions' officials were leftist rank and file elements to extend expose the growing authoritarianism initially reluctant to seek wide support the strike by closing the rest of Fleet represented by the current union laws. for the picketing and demonstrations. Street found no echo. The consequence The dispute was called off finally not But a fear of isolation and the desire for would have been that Murdoch would because those involved were not pre- a successful reader boycott of the have had a free hand with only his pared to continue - they were not papers helped to relax that attitude. papers coming out, while the enormous actually asked - but because, with Extensive picketing and effective de- sums of money being raised weekly to threats of injunctions and sequestra- monstrations to stop the movement of sustain those on strike would have tions, both the NGA and Sogat consi- the papers clearly needed more people come to an end. In any event morale in dered that their organisation would be than the striking unions could mobilise. national newspapers was and remains destroyed. This is a chilling conclusion, Three-stage pickets were organised low as proprietors step up their de- the consequences of which would repay firstly at Wapping and its satellite mands for more redundancies (10,000 study by those who argue that unions Glasgow plant at Kinning Park, second- in the past 18 months), extended are too powerful. ly at the TNT depots and finally at the working days and weeks, less holidays Finally those who have claimed that wholesalers. This gave a national char- and wage cuts as new technology is new printing technology would herald a acter to the effort and allowed many introduced. breakthrough for political plurality in more people to be involved. During the Organisation and discipline among the media have had their answer. early weeks of the dispute it was the strikers remained at a high level, Murdoch now boasts that his vastly optimistically believed that a mass and in spite of the inability to sustain an increased profitability will underwrite picket which blocked the Wapping effective mass picket, a constant day his growing world media ambitions. A Highway could stop the papers. On May and night presence was kept up small, effectively organised, largely 3, after an enormous build up, tens of throughout. When Murdoch applied last unskilled staff can produce four nation- thousands of supporters joined the summer for injunctions to restrain the al newspapers, but the technology is strikers in Wapping but the destruction pickets his affidavits revealed that not cheap which means that old tech- and violent breaking up of the demon- additional security and distribution nology monopolies simply become new stration by the police marked a turning costs were amounting to over £400,000 technology monopolies. • point in the dispute. It was graphically monthly. The deep sense of grievance Mike Power demonstrated, and reconfirmed on the felt by the strikers was shown by the anniversary, that the police could ever-growing ballot majorities to reject 1 Interviewed by the New York Times March 2,1986.

41 MARXISM TODAY MARCH 1987 i

Uphill struggle from its early days. printing plants - is confident of secur- Wapping From the night the newspaper laden ing a bargaining and recognition agree- TNT trucks first thundered out of ment there in the near future. Sunset Wapping, the unions have been unable The EETPU have other potential to dent News International's success in enemies, apart from the print unions. he effects of Rupert Mur- getting its products out on to the street. Its success in concluding single-union doch's ruthlessly executed The company's ability to carry on deals with Japanese companies in coup against the print unions functioning has remained a constant South Wales is prompting concern from have rippled rapidly through throughout. the Transport and General Workers Tthe British national newspaper indus- Offers, ballots, rejections, the un- Union and the General, Municipal and try. After meticulous planning, Mur- masking of the disreputable role of the Boilermakers' Union. At Orion (UK) doch broke free of traditional Fleet electricians union EETPU, splits and 'Any hope of four unions 'bid' for a single-union Street culture in one brazen bound late tensions between Sogat's leadership stopping the agreement. The EETPU believe they last January. and its branches: although they lorries have clinched the deal. Mr John He slashed his cost base, sacked fleshed out the sub plots in the Wapping through a Edmonds, general secretary of the 5,500 printworkers and began produc- narrative, they never seriously chal- GMBU, is keen on pressing the TUC to ing News International's four titles lenged the immutable core of the 13 human establish 'minimum standards' for such from behind the gates of a razor wire month conflict. blockade deals, to guard against possible down- fortified factory in Wapping. He thus Starkly, the unions were unable to was written bidding by some unions to secure an created a benchmark of efficiency have any impact on News Internation- off weeks agreement which would not do em- which other rival newspaper prop- al's production cycles. Mass demon- ployees justice. The GMBU is likely to rietors aspired to. And while they may strations provided an outlet for sacked into the argue for this at congress later this publicly express distaste for his tac- workers to protest against their treat- conflict' year. tics, they have not been slow to ment - but also underscored the union's capitalise on the fallout from Wapping. impotence. Any hope of stopping the Without the tranche of union-curbing No other national title is in a position lorries through a human blockade was employment legislation framed by the to 'do a Wapping' - even if they could written off weeks into the conflict. Tories, Rupert Murdoch's Wapping stomach it. No other newspaper pub- victory might have been more muted. lishing house has an alternative work- The EETPU played a key role in ensuring He enthusiastically embraced the force, distribution system and plant on News International's success in routing employment laws of the early 80s hand. the print unions: by supplying the which effectively inhibit any form of But in the post-Wapping climate - company with labour to replace sacked secondary action and allow for the with the balance of negotiating power printworkers. Confronted with calls for creation of 'buffer companies' which ratcheted strongly in the employers' direct penalties against the union for render solidarity action illegal. favour - a spate of deals have been colluding with an employer, the TUC Although an employer's right to sack struck with the print unions which general council issued a series of employees who break their employ- would have been deemed unachievable directives which the EETPU could ment contracts by taking industrial by employers 18 months ago. actually be expected to obey. The action pre-dates the Thatcher years, The unions are eager to demonstrate prospect of expulsion - and a TUC split News International's use of the tactic that they can negotiate change - -was averted. has brought it to public attention. including radical changes in working he union - which had made it British workers are quite frequently practices and substantial demanning. clear it was prepared to go to 'sacked' by employers in the heat of a Last year, the Daily Telegraph slashed the High Court to restrain the dispute - but taken back on again once its production workforce by 62% - and TUC from issuing an unlawful it has been settled. News International cut its wage bill for the area from £40m Tinstruction if it came to it - is received legal advice from its lawyers to £16m. Redundancy packages of up to aggressively expansionist. Farrar and co, that the cheapest way to £45,000 helped smooth the way to TUC disciplinary procedures are dispense with unwanted workers was to change. geared towards securing compliance dismiss them when they were engaged A new, if constrained, form of print from affiliates who breach rules - not in a strike. unionism in national titles is emerging precipitating splits. The TUC is also The secret balloting provisions out of the maelstrom - characterised keen on ensuring that the collective fleshed out in the 1984 Trade Union Act by a reduction in the number of voice of organised labour does not lay will be retained in a modified form if bargaining units, the setting up of joint itself open to a legal challenge. Labour takes power. Both Sogat and the consultative committees and company The EETPU is still in the fold - but NGA are enthusiastic supporters of level bargaining. even among its rightwing allies within secret ballots in strikes. But the The industrial processes in the the TUC, its behaviour in the dispute is Wapping dispute has brought the lesser national newspaper sector have been seen as reprehensible. And one impor- used 1980 and 1982 Employment Acts effectively preserved in aspic. Wap- tant factor which emerged is that it to the fore: the company has used them ping has acted as a catalyst - spurring a cannot formalise a recognition agree- more vigorously than any other since long-stalled industrial revolution in the ment with News International for the the legislation came on the statute sector. The pace of change resembles a members it recruited to staff the plant book. speeded-up video when set against the without risking expulsion. The print union leaders - and others stasis of the last 100 years. The process The EETPU's ambitions within on the general council - hope one of change is being telescoped into a national newspapers have been effec- lasting knock-on effect of the dispute tight timescale. tively checked even though both Mur- will be to discredit some of the present Employers invoke commercial im- doch and Eddie Shah were attracted by laws. This could usher in a new legal peratives and competitive pressure as the union's market-based philosophy era enshrining the right to strike - and hastening the need for new technology and its persistent championing of the right to take some forms of systems and new manning agreements: single-union, single-status, strike-free sympathy action. the unions' instinct for self- deals. That is, if the public can be per- preservation is breaking down resist- The print unions can take some suaded that the laws are currently ance to change. comfort from Lonrho's decision not to weighted too much in the employer's The knock-on effect of Wapping on follow through Eddie Shah's enthu- favour. But the chances are, the rival titles has been swift and dramatic: siasm for a single union deal with the abiding memory of Wapping for those radical deals were being struck while electricians for the Today newspaper. not directly involved will be violent Sogat '82 and the NGA were still locked The NGA - which has built up a picket line clashes on prime time tv. • in a dispute which looked unwinnable significant membership at Today's Helen Hague

42 MARXISM TODAY MARCH 1987