Nuj Caves in to Print Union Officials on Closed Shop

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A short lived stand by the National Executive of the NUJ against the brute force of the TUC collapsed this week when it voted without dissent to put the question of a closed shop at Darlington up for barter.

The Executive agreed that a 'mediator' will have a free hand to produce a 'solution' to the strike at the Westminster Press owned North of England Newspapers.

The mediator will also be free to propose a settlement to the dispute at Westminster Press's London office where journalists were victimised for refusing to break the Darlington strike.

OPENED UP

In this way strikes at both offices where journalists have been picketing since early June have been opened up for print union leaders to carry out a sell out.

Only 10 days before their collapse the NUJ executive had voted-by 10 to 9 with one abstention-to make victory at Darlington and London an absolute condition of settlement.

Now although the strikes will continue the arena has been shifted away from the strikes into the conference rooms where the bureaucrats have more freedom to manoeuvre.

MEDIATION

The Printing Industries Committee of the TUC had proposed at Blackpool that mediation should begin and that journalists and supporting printers should return to work. A 90 to nil vote by the Darlington chapel to stay out followed by a similar vote in London set the scene to resist this An emergency meeting of the Westminster Press NUJ group chapel was called, a mass lobby of Ken Morgan-until NUJ General Secretary.

the NEC was arranged and a motion was prepared to combat the sellout.

This resulted in the historic vote by the Executive to continue the fight without concessions.

It was achieved in the face of bitter hostility from the outgoing NUJ General Secretary Ken Morgn who urged the Executive not to vote at all rather than vote for the tough amendment.

BLUNT

The reaction of Bill Keys, chairman of the PIC, when Morgan broke the bad news was blunt.

"When will the NUJ National Executive grow up?"

He convened a second and more determined meeting of the PIC.

Evidence that the strong stand by the NUJ was correct was borne out immediately.

Under the impact of the vote, print union FoC's from all over the rea bro the group met in Darlington and firmed support, a move which ught the possiblity of escalating strike closer.

CROSS PICKET

But the PIC threatened to order all print workers at Darlington to cross the picket line if the NUJ did not go into mediation without preconditions.

Keys, Morgan and the other print leaders are looking for a short term "interim" closed shop from Westminster Press in return for an end to the strike.

The cynical nature of this treachery was exposed at Blackpool. There, in secret, print union leaders met NUJ members from Kettering who want to leave the union and assured them they were free to do so.

Last year their attempted defection prolonged a dispute at Kettering into a six month closed shop battle.

IDENTICAL

It was the identical solution which is now being sought at Darlington which finally drove the NUJ members back to work. Now their strike is shown to have been in vain.

All is not yet lost. The strikes continue and the NUJ Executive has promised to examine the mediator's proposals "in the light of NUJ policy.

This cryptic wording which was accepted by the entire left wing of the Executive is specifically designed to mean all things to all parties.

But it takes the disputes into exactly the arena in which the print union leaders will flourish: the halt world of shady deals, half truths and sordid manoeuvres that could leave NUJ members and printers alike drinking bile out of a cup called 'victory"