Strike fails to stop Murdoch papers

Press, 27 January 1986, Page 10

Strike fails to stop Murdoch papers

NZPA-Reuter London

The publisher, Rupert Murdoch, appeared to have defeated British print unions yesterday by publishing his two Sunday newspapers in spite of a strike by 6000 workers. "The Sunday Times” and the mass-circulation “News of the World” rolled off automated presses during the night, the first time British national newspapers were printed using advanced technology.

The event could usher in a print revolution and deal a fatal blow to the power of trades unions, which kept computerised presses from Fleet Street, traditional home of Britain’s newspapers. A jubilant Mr Murdoch, owner of Britain’s biggest newspaper group, posed outside the new£loo million ($274 million) plant in London’s former docks area, displaying copies of the two papers. A handful of pickets watched helplessly as trucks loaded with the papers trundled out of the heavily fortified building where members of the rival, electricians’ union,

E.E.T.P.U., produced them. The print unions — the National Graphical Association and the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades — walked out on Friday after talks with Mr Murdoch broke down.

The strike kept Mr Murdoch’s two daily papers, “The Times” and “The Sun,” off the streets. Mr Murdoch said that he was pressing ahead with plans to print them in the new plant, in east London’s Wapping district, today.

Until yesterday, Britain’s main newspapers were printed using obsolete type-setting tech-, niques, overtaken 25 years ago by photo-set-ting.

The Australian-born Mr Murdoch, now a United States citizen, reached a no-strike agreement with the E.E.T.P.U. at the new plant, nicknamed “Fortress Wapping” because of barbed wire and ditches around it.

The print unions refused to sign such a deal.

The management of Mr Murdoch’s News Inter-

national group said that dismissal notices had been sent to the striking print workers for breaking their employment contracts. Journalists at “The Sun” and the “News of the World” agreed to work at the new plant •after being offered extra money. Some said they had been threatened with dismissal if they refused. After an 11 hour meeting, which concluded just after midnight (localtime), the journalists decided that they would not co-operate with the new arrangements but would meet again today. The journalists “deplored” and condemned the company’s ultimatum to staff, which had required that some journalists report for work at the new plant at 8 a.m. yesterday (9 p.m. NZDT). The company has offered £2OOO ($5480) a head to accept the new technology “without reservations.”

But the branch had rejected that and was seeking management’s withdrawal of the terms in their present form, said N.U.J. officials.