Journalists: the good news and ine baa

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Provincial journalists returned to work on Monday at the end of a seven week strike with the obvious gains weakened by the terms of the settlement.

Although the strike bust wide open the, original 5% offer and made big gains in pay for some sections of journalists, the strike ends with 28 journalists at Nottingham sacked and the union proposing not to lift a finger to help them.

Direct input

The journalists work for the Nottingham Evening Post, whose boss Paul Carew forced in direct input typesetting four years ago and destroyed the organised print unions. As soon as most of the NUJ members on the paper Joined the official national strike he declared them sacked.

National officials had assured strikers that their jobs would be defended, but put the 14.5% pay offer out for voting without telling the membership that the Nottingham workers remained sacked.

At the London meeting of chapel representatives called to decide on the outcome a resolution from the Oxford chapel-that there should be no return to work until the employers guaranteed no victimisation -was defeated by about two to one.

This vote-in the face of a plea from the Nottingham chapel that the motion should be supported-was carried through after National officials said it was a hopeless gesture and that mixture of silence and derision, the meeting was swung by Mike Bower, Northern Organiser, who stood as the 'left' candidate in the last elections for the Defender of the deal-SOGAT 'eader Keys PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report General Secretary.

For 15 minutes Bower played on the 'weakness' and 'tiredness' of the strikers, and told FoCs that however they voted they would find their members returning to work.

In fact in those chapels which had •discussed Nottingham before the meeting there had been general agreement that the strike could not end until they were reinstated.

Oxford FoC. Peter McIntyre told delegates that although members had exercised their option to call off an offensive over wages after gains had been made in future years. seven weeks, they could not under attack in this way.

Union After defeating the resolution union officials then gave enthusiastic backing to a local campaign' to get the strikers reinstated which involved opening an office in Nottingham and starting a paper supposed to 'compete' with the giant firm.

Although the campaign action it is relying on TUC Even at this stage the only way to reinstate the Nottingham strikers is by strike action throughout the Newspaper Society chapels, mass pickets and a fight for blacking. Such policies are now being passed by chapels supporting the Oxford motion.

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PHOTO: PHOTO: Andrew Wiard. Report

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