Times Change
Socialist Press1979 1979-07-04Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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at The dramatic shift in the management's position at the Times, which has led to widespread expectation that the papers will be back on the streets by September, came after a collapse of solidarity 'by the petty shareholders in the company.
But it has exposed what has been the real position for months. That the Times print unions are not fighting for the defence of all jobs.
A week ago the NGA had virtually thrown in the towel by advising their members to get other jobs.
But the shareholders meeting was a significant blow to Lord Thomson, who expected applause for the stand he has backed.
While the institutional shareholders sat mute, the. small shareholders, who represent that slice of arrogant capital s0 virulent . in their anti-working class demands, laid into Lord Thomson.
Why were they losing £1.7 million a month? Why had the Times gone it alone? Why were there no moves to resolve the dispute?
Solidarity with the big bourgeoisie had vanished. Behind it lay only a wingeing band of snipers revealing all the least pleasant side of their nature.
Lord Thomson, shaken by the meeting, immediately sought a 'new initiative'.
The offer from the management to discuss direct input while the papers are back on the street is a climbdown on its most fundamental point of But no print union member should be blinded to what that conceals in the print leadership.
From the first days of the • dispute the NGA has stuck only on direct imput, not on the new technology.
The cut in jobs now proposed by management and almost certain to be agreed by NGA officials is not going to be as dramatic as once appeared.
It is nevertheless a savage cut in jobs which the chapels would have resisted strongly if they had been proposed from the beginning.
Little reliet
For workers at the Times there is little relief to be found in the management climbdown.
When the talks are over the Times management will still be seeking the same objective. Meanwhile the NGA will have demoralised the workforce by accepting major losses of jobs.
They must be resisted on a programme which challenges the right of management to cut any jobs, and which builds towards a new leadership in the union, prepared to fight for the defence of the working class on a revolutionary platform.