Bloody Draw at the Times

Scan page 12

When the Times and Sunday Times reappear next month hardly a single one of the crucial attacks made on the workforce will have been definitively settled.

The outcome of the 12 month closure has been a bloody draw in which management have failed to establish their most ambitious plans-but in which hundreds of print workers' have away.

The contrast between Times Newspapers Ltd Chief Executive Marmaduke Hussey and NGA President Les Dixon as they emerged from the firal round of all-night talks suggested that the union had given ground rapidly.

Hussey stood like a patrician rock mouthing platitudes to the press, while Dixon fawned like an elderly spaniel at his feet.

The concensus of he rest of Fleet Street-which d esperately wanted a humiliating defeat on the unions-was that the NGA had won out.

They pointed out:

*Direct inputting onto the computer by journalists and ad reps-the main pre-closedown demand-had not been conceded.

*TNL had lost between £30 million and £35 million during the shutdown.

*NGA compositors had jumped to the top of the wages league with rates of £227.50 a week once they move onto the new machines.

*A single night shift now brings £90 for NGA members in the machine room as against £67 for NATSOPA members.

But the outcome is not victory for the unions.

"Flexibility"

Many chapels have accepted large job cuts (e.g. 17% among NATSOPA machine assistants in the Sunday Times).

Direct imputting is to be rediscussed and NGA leaders are committed to flexibility' on the • A tight disputes procedure has also been agreed which guarantees continuous production.

This last concession is potenCont'd p. 11, col.3 ruth Park Hill, le Post Office