Union stars
It was the first strike on a major UK national paper for 18 years when journalists at the Express group in London came out for a day in April. STEVE USHER, Father of Chapel at the Daily Star, tells the story
BRITISH NATIONAL newspaper journalists are not renowned for rising early. So the 5.30am call-to-arms came as quite a shock. I had spent the previous evening preparing picket line placards with NUJ National Organiser Barry Fitzpatrick in the car park of Headland House. This was as romantic and enjoyable as it sounds.
At dawn, with union President and joint Mother of Chapel Michelle Stanistreet joining us on a flying visit from the Annual Delegate Meeting in Belfast, the three of us piled into Barry’s car and set off to Lower Thames Street in the heart of the City of London and a dispute five months in the making.
Some non-union reporters’ cars were scuttling through the barriers even at the ungodly hour of 6.15am; apparently one keen reporter had elected to sleep in the office! Never mind ... we had known that not everyone was with us.
The union contingent however were all present and correct and our picket line was officially in place. Extra security men had been drafted in for the day by management. We were moved back from the building and the ramp area a couple of times, but Wapping it was not.
We managed to persuade the drivers of two Post Office vans not to cross the picket line but to turn back without delivering their mail. Early successes, we felt. Our numbers swelled to six or seven, the sun was slowly rising above the city and still more pickets came. Express Newspapers chairman Richard Desmond, fresh from his morning workout at the gym, arrived to bid us good morning. “It’s a nice day for it,” he said, as he strode into the building with his minder/driver lugging his gym-kit. More NUJ colleagues arrived bearing boxes of biscuits and trays of coffees. London’s morning rush-hour drivers began honking their horns in support.
A company shuttle bus with blacked-out windows had been laid on to ferry staff through the line and into work. It zoomed in and out with upsetting regularity. But our people kept coming too and soon we were up to 35–40 colleagues and supporters. All four titles — Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday — were well represented on the line. We were inundated with hundreds of messages of support throughout the day and during the run-up to the action — from NUJ members, chapels and branches and from other trade unions and community groups. Word of the strong action at the production office at Broughton in Lancashire raised our spirits even further as we stood shoulder-to-shoulder and carried on leafleting everyone entering the building.
Some staff had expressed concern about being heckled on their way in. One of them even asked me to put out a global email promising strikebreakers that no-one would shout anything ghastly at them. But there was no nastiness on this line. The worst thing shouted by anyone came when two burly flaggers inched past us carrying a new paving stone. “SLABS!” went up the cry.
Humour and sticking together was what would get us through. The loudhailer came out and was used to great effect in some pretty unconventional ways. London’s tourist buses were treated to: “... and if you look down to your left you will see a traditional English picket line. “ They cheered us on and took photographs.
Daily Express deputy editor Hugh Whittow gave me the winning tip for the Grand National the following day, Comply or Die. Sadly I never got to the bookies.
Our pockets may have been emptied for the day by a management bent on confrontation but my heart at least was full of pride at the people prepared to stand up for themselves in an increasingly bitter dispute. I know others on the line felt the same.
Across the road, The Walrus and The Carpenter pub twinkled seductively at us in the lunchtime sunshine. Some of us had been on the pavement for seven or eight hours by now. A relief rota was quickly organised with groups taking an hour out for some refreshment and to put their feet up.
By 5 o’clock we decided that our day of action had achieved all it could do. A rousing thank you speech later, we marched with our placards up and down Lower Thames Street, then put away our banners and downed a few beers. Some of the security men came over and had a drink with us. We all hoped we had made a difference.
Sadly, it seems, it would appear wise for us to keep the placards in storage. We may once again get to see what 5.30am looks like.
TALE OF TWO PICKETS
The Express group isn’t just Fleet Street. It has a big production office at Broughton, by the M6 near Preston in Lancashire, where subbing and listings are done. And the 43-strong chapel came out for the day as well.
The strike was a great send-off for the Mother of the NUJ Chapel, Nina Killen, a sub on the Daily Star magazine. It was the last day before she went off on maternity leave — she’s expecting twins at the end of May.
“The feeling was very strong that the 3 per cent offer without negotiation was not enough, while the company is making so much money,” she said. “We didn’t have to rally the troops. The vote to strike was unanimous and the whole chapel came out.
“We had 20 on the picket line, in two shifts, and they got a lot of support.”
A dozen journalists did go into work, but, Nina Killen said, they were mostly casuals. There are a lot of casuals at Broughton — nearly a third of the chapel are casuals, and they took part in the strike.