Stalwart supporter of strike for parity with printers
FORMER Manchester Daily Mirror colleagues will be saddened to learn of the death of Larry McDermott at the age of 80.
He was a respected and trusted journalist, a man of principle who maintained a lifelong belief in the high idealism of the old Labour Party.
Larry was born in Liverpool and during the Second World War served as a merchant seaman on Atlantic convoy duty.
He was for 40 years a journalist, working as Oldham staffer for the Manchester Evening News, before joining the News Chronicle.
He joined the Daily Mirror in Manchester in 1955 as a sub and was a stalwart supporter when the London and Manchester chapels went on strike to be paid as much as members of the print unions.
The NUJ refused to back them and the London chapel ended their strike, but the Manchester journalists carried on and after three weeks management capitulated. This led to the NUJ changing its policy and allowing chapels to negotiate their own agreements, so journalists everywhere benefited from the Manchester fight.
On top of his chapel activity Larry served for 16 years on the Manchester Welfare Committee of the Newspaper Press Fund.
Don Briggs