The print dispute: a fight they upset the American plans for
"reform with continuity." (14)
The problem does not lie in having for trade-union rights an imperialist the United States great power - intervene in the name of democracy. It lies simply in stop-
Washington ping its intervention. If had not intervened in the country, the Marcos dictatorship been overthrown long ago!
ON JANUARY 24, press magnate Rupert Murdoch provoked a strike by 5,500 union members employed on production of his four between the Chile of Pinochet and
Nicaragua of the Sandinista newspapers - The Times, The Sunday Times, the News of the World, revolution! In Nicaragua, which has and The Sun. He moved production of the newspapers from Fleet a people's government, the mechanisms of dependency
Street, London's traditional newspaper-producing area, to Wapping with the overthrow of Somoza.
in East London and demanded drastic reductions in the workforce,
The problem is the policy of stranrefusing to recognise long-established trade-union rights. When the gling the revolution democratic freedoms won by four unions involved protested with strike action, every single worker the people in the course of the revoluwas sacked, and the unions' funds were later sequestered.
tion) that Washington has
Since then the sacked trade unionists and their supporters have suing by escalating intervention.
been out regularly to Wapping to picket the new plant which is built
Already at the end of the last century, like a fortress, complete with barbed wire, guard towers and a moat.
the Philippine people liberated them-
The building is thus equipped in order to protect the scab members selves from the three-centuries-long of the electricians' union, the EETPU, now working inside the new yoke of Spanish domination. They were in fact the first people in the region to overthrow a colonial govern-
We spoke to Larry and Jackie Hyett about the dispute and its ment through insurrection.
wider implications. Larry was sacked from the Sunday Times and
After buying from the Spanish is a member of the London Machine branch of the SOGAT '82 union.
what they did not own, the
United
Jackie is active in the support unit for the printworkers in the London
States imposed its own domination on the islands at the cost of a bloody borough of Lambeth. Both are members of the Labour Party.
war and thanks to the capitulation of a large part of the elites. This did not keep the United States from portraying itself subsequently as a force for democracy come to.
liberate their "little brown brothers."
The democratic verbiage of the
United States under Reagan should not create any illusions. The American policy is a strong-arm policy. In the name of the
"Reagan Doctrine" of fighting Communism,
"The adminihas turned
Intelligence Agency reinvigorated and expanded under the activist
William J. Casey."
"Moderate" elements of the CIA, such as deputy director John N.
MacMahon, were pushed aside.
annual budget of the agency exceeds 500 million dollars, is much more funding than time since the Vietnam war."
the Philippines own interests - never those of the
14.
See
Paul Petitjean,
"After the fall of Marcos,
" 'IV' No. 95, March 24, 1986.
15.
Patrick
Tyler and
David
B.
Otter Reagan
"CIA
Covert
Role
Flourishes
Under
Doctrine,
International
Herald Tribune', March 10, 1986.
16.
Ibid.
plant.
Question. Can you explain to us what the dispute is about?
Larry Hyett. There are five unions involved. SOGAT 82 [Society of Graphical and Allied Trades], which is my union, NGA [National Graphical Association], AUEW [Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers] and NUJ [National Union of Journalists], which is only partly on strike. There is also the EETPU [Electrical, ElecPlumbing Union], strike at the present moment. A section of the EETPU membership is acting as scabs in this dispute by working for Murdoch at the Wapping
The strike is basically over trade-union rights and trade-union recognition at the new Wapping plant. This is what brought me out on strike, when Rupert Murdoch proposed, without negotiation, the following conditions
That there would be no closed shop. This would mean that employare members of a union could leave it at any time. This is a basic principle as far as I'm concerned because this undermines union stren-
- That anyone taking part in tion, every single worke a strike or industrial action would be subject to immediate dismissal without the right of appeal. That is, that there is no right to strike.
- That there would be no recognition of different chapels [branches] and no negotiation with them. This is a further effort to undermine in-house agreements.
That new technology could be adopted at any time, followed by
As rank-and-file members, our view is that new technology should be used to benefit the workers and enhance working conditions, not just to inthe profits of multinational Another fundamental issue was that the employer has the exclusive management can hire and fire, transfer, demote etc. as they see fit. All this would be legally binding upon union members. Within this framework, the management demanded that any union representative could be deselected
For her position for any misdemeanour.
are totally opposed to these trade unions. The negotiations at the Sunday Times started some 18 months International Viewpoint 21 April 1986
Jackie Hyett. Well, I was involved 80 meetings. We have raised about ago. An agreement was drawn up and signed. This agreement was torn up by a new management representative named Pole-Carew - a notorious union-bashing agency. Our negotiations involved the transfer to sites and the introduction of increased pagination. Our current workplace only has a capability of printing 80 pages. We signed an agreement that we would print 170 pages on the Sunday Times. We knew that would have to be linked to a transfer programme. The also had a signed agreement to move with the staff to Wapping. That agreealso torn up before the
These are the reasons why today we find ourselves in dispute.
Q. In the meantime, Murdoch had already taken people on at Wapping?
LH. This is true. He told us that he was preparing for a new publication at Wapping called the London Post. He said this was why he needed the extra staff. We now realize that this was a lie. These fabrications were engineered by management to prolong negotiations. During the new set of negotiations the terms I outlined earlier were drawn up. The dispute was clearly provoked by the manageoffices we later learned that Murdoch had been advised that the best way for him to get rid of the original workforce, from a legal point of view, was through sacking them whilst on strike. So now 6,000 of us have been the position of the EETPU on Fleet Street in this dispute?
LH. The EETPU press branch is a very militant branch. They support our action. They have not taken industrial action to support us yet
As far as I am concerned, we need to step up the dispute and there are a number of ways that we can do that.
One way is to call for the boycotting of media coverage which tries to put forward adverse propaganda against strikers and their supporters. The other way is to spread the dispute to other newspapers. During the dispute every other newspaper title has been waiting to introduce similar measures on the back of Murdoch's battle with the unions. Every title is making demands for redundancy and for the introduction of new technology whilst Murdoch has been in dispute. For example on the Daily Telegraph the negotiations with the day- and night-shift workers have been frozen pending the outcome of the dispute. The Daily Mirror is the same.
International Viewpoint 21 April 1986
We must resolve these problems by escalating the Murdoch dispute and taking it to the other national news-
What support have you received from other unions or from the Labour
LH. The Labour Party is keeping a very low profile. They are giving us the same type of support they gave unions have given us more support than they originally gave the Workers Union (TGWU) has issued an instruction from the National Executive Council, telling their drivers not to cross our picket lines. The drivers, unfortunately, have chosen not to observe these.
Other unions outside the printing industry have shown quite a bit of financial and moral support. Through the pressure of the rank and file, physical support is building up too. picketing and we have won the polibringing about mass picketing. We have pressurized the National Executive which was reluctant to do this, and now the strike is being run by the London District Committee. The numbers on the picket lines have grown from hundreds into thousands. For example, on March 15 there were 8,000-10,000 workers on the picket line at Wapping. In my opinion you saw true workers' power on the streets that day. First the destroyed the railings of what has become known as fortress Wapping. Barricades were used by scab lorry drivers. and other trade unionists helped to defend them. Vehicles were used to block the road. The police used every effort but were unable to beat us
Women were shoulder to shoulder with the men that night. They helped to dismantle buildings, to build barricades. These are the types of actions we think are going to lead to the turn in the tide against trade unionism in this country.
•This is putting pressure on the union nationally. I don't have much faith in them but they are beginning to change. Brenda Dean, general secretary of SOGAT, has said that "We will rely on traditional trade-union tactics. " The way I interpret statement, it should mean: boycotting of all Murdoch's products, wide; picketing and support from the wider trade-union movement.
Q. Jackie, what is your role in the strike and what are you doing?
Murdoch's gimmick
FOR MOST print union members
Murdoch's latest offer to end the print dispute is no more than a gimmick
The offer involves handing over the £12 million Fleet Street site, which Murdoch deserted in order to set up the scab plant at Wapping to the unions to run their own newspaper. Murdoch is hoping to play on the fact that for many years now the labour movement has wanted to have its own daily newspaper.
At the 15,000-strong labour movement rally held in support of printworkers on April 6 in London, the offer was reiected bv most of the speakers, although some Labour
Party leaders are said to be favourable to the idea. In fact the rally itself, which was also addressed by
NUM leader Arthur Scargill and attended by many miners' contingents, is testimony to the growing support that is building up behind in setting up a support unit in our area from day one of the strike. I have supported Larry in everything to get lists of the names of other but so far this hasn't been forthcoming from the union chapel. The wives turned out on the women's demonstration but it's more difficult to get them involved in picketing. The first women's demonstration was completely spontaneous - it wasn't advertised and about 3,000 women turned up. The second time March 8, International Women's Day, and about 6,000 women turned up, from the wider movement That night we did stop production. But a lot of women had kids with them and didn't want to do the
The support unit was set up by the Labour Party. I support the fight for this country whether you're employed or un-
If this Tory government and Maggie Thatcher are allowed to get away with what they are doing in trade unionism will be no more. I was involved in getting the support unit for the miners off the and I have been politically active for some time now. I think if during the miners' strike that would have helped our fight today.
What does the support group do?
JH. At the first meeting there were about 100 people. We discussed how to get people down to the picket lines - lots of people don't want to go on their own. Meetings have been arranged. Larry and his comrades have spoken at between 70 and
9
BRITAIN £3,000. We have had a tremendous response from unions, especially NALGO [National Association of Local Government Officers], the NUT [National Union of Teachers] from women's groups, gays and lesbians and the Black community. I think there are now 17 support units within the London area. There are also support groups further afield and they into the union of are federated support groups.
UNION
Q. What did you learn from the miners' strike?
LH. Personally, I learnt a lot from it because I was heavily involved in the miners' dispute. We saw the police tactics in that dispute and we saw other unions' responses to the miners. This is why I say we must be strong as printworkers and rely upon traditional trade-union tactics.
What we learnt from the miners'
Demonstrators lobby the TUC. On the left general secretary Brenda Dean (DR)
strike was that we could not trust the laws of this land to give justice to working-class people.
We must use our industrial strength to bring about justice. The strongest weapon we have is organized labour. We must agitate