30 years to learn the lessons

THIS WINTER marks the 30th anniversary of two of the most important disputes in the history of the NUJ. Seen from such a distance, it was perhaps no accident that they came at a turning point in the economic and social history of Britain.

On November 30 1978 the Thom son organisation stopped production and locked out the entire workforce of The Times, The Sunday Times and the supplements. The presses were shut down and it was almost a year before they turned again. It was an attack on press freedom and trade unionism that has no parallel.

Management believed the threat of closure would force 4,000 employees in more than 50 chapels in seven unions to sign new working agreements. They failed utterly and Lord Thomson lost more than £40 million in the process.

Members of The Times NUJ chapel behaved with discipline and integrity throughout, holding firm to the union’s “new technology” policy, which was to refuse to do work done by printers unless they agreed to the change. The journalists, unlike all the other employees, remained on full pay throughout the lockout, though that did little to allay their sense of frustration and contempt for management.

The lockout at Times Newspapers was one of the longest, most costly and ultimately futile industrial disputes in 20th century Britain. I feel proud to have played some part in those momentous events as Father of the NUJ Chapel at the Times.

Scarcely had battle been joined, however, than the NUJ’s national executive was faced with another huge decision: talks on the national pay award for provincial journalists had broken down and in chapels up and down England and Wales members were calling for action.

The executive decided to call the NUJ’s first and so far only national strike. It was a bitter winter and for seven weeks 8,000 poorly paid journalists fought an even more bitter struggle — and won a significant improvement in their pay.

That winter of 1978-79 marked the end of the post-Second World War social consensus. Margaret Thatcher was elected in May 1979, and with her came the application of monetarism, unemployment, the deregulation of capitalism and the selling off publicly owned assets — all in the name of progress. For 30 years Keynesianism was discredited — and yet now it is being resurrected in the hope of saving us all from the greed and folly of the last 30 years.

As Britain — and Ireland — enter uncharted economic territory, perhaps the success of NUJ chapels in the far off and long ago will encourage members in their present struggles.

Jacob Ecclestone
Diss, Norfolk