Print lock-out: Call out Fleet

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National Graphical Associa- centres they have become But the effect of 21 years tions committed to a decisive ion have heen chocked increasingly angry at even small peaceful coexistence have taken blow against trade union organThe ranks of the National Graphical Association have been shocked back into action 21 years after the last national stoppage in the provinces.

The national lockout declared by managements from the British Printing Industries Federation and the Newspaper Society has unleashed a militancy that they had not expec ted from the rank and file of the membership.

From Carlisle to Wolverhampton to Brighton printers have been struggling to prevent scab newspapers being taken through their pickets. In other centres they have become increasingly angry at even small free distribution fact sheets' produced by managements as a propaganda weapon against the NGA.

For the past 20 years printers have seen their skills stripped away. They have seen membership slump as thousands of jobs have gone to the walllargely without a struggle.

Isolated

The battles of Fleet Street have been reflected in only isolated struggles the But the effect of 21 years peacetul coexistence have taken their toll and in many centres pickets have not gone up, other sections of workers have been told to continue reporting for work and chapels have failed to link up their struggles.

The managements have been meeting divisions within their own ranks. Some senior officers of the BPIF have not locked out their own print shops, fearful of the effects of the 2,000 or so interim settlements that rival managements have signed.

The toughest stand has been taken by the Newspaper Society which has long been among the vangual tions c blow al isation. vanguard of employers federaSuspended The lockout was expected to reveal a deep division between the union leadership, which had called a programme of selective action against the employers, and the membership-which the employers calculated was ready to settle.

Minorities of NUJ chapels are now either suspended or refusing to cross picket lines in Carlisle, Wolverhampton, the Shropshire Star, and Oxford. At Newbury, NUJ members have refused to work on any scab paper but have not been suspended.

Slade has given support and now has more members suspended for refusing to cooperate with scabbing than it has ever had on its own account.

But the biggest blow against the NGA membership has come from within the trade union ranks.

NATSOPA and SOGAT both submitted joint claims with the NGA and then advised their members to settle.

Now Bill Keys has issued a statement that if the NGA win NGA leader Joe Wade the £80 minimum earnings claim SOGAT will immediately submit a differential claim and Continued p.11, col.6

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