Darlington Strikers' False Step
Socialist Press1977 1977-11-23Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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: The weakness that the imployer has been tarching for in the arlington strike for a nurnalists' closed shop las found last week after hours probing by festminster Press and be leaders of the print nions. : This week the strike ecomes the longest in the NI's history. Faced with the tal choice of escalating the bike in line with chapel and loup chapel policy or knuckbe under to the threat of GA print leaders to pull out ! the dispute, the strike amittee sent a resolution • the National Executive of a NUJ calling on it to delay calation.
Tacit agreement
It asked the Executive who were only too happy to aiger that one more proach to Westminster mess should be made, this ine with the aim of securing I ta.:: agreement to a closed 0= and a commitment to T=2 .:: *1 sparked =X:3300 itte NGA members have been out in support of the strike (as have SLADE members) since August and the NGA leadershil that it would be admitted difficult to order them across NUJ picket lines, as their members have become committed to the strike being "settled", Opposed to simply 'Initiative' Three days before the NUJ executive had been finally about to spread the strike to other papers in Westminster Press, Joe Wade, General Secretary of the NGA stopped them in their tracks by announcing a new 'initiative' on the dispute.
For a week there was silence on this "initiative' Then Wade sent a letter to the NUJ General Secretary, Ken Ashton. It contained no proposals.
Wade simply said that the NUJ must come up with, a plan acceptable to the NGA leadership for a settlement or the support was over.
In return for NUJ agreement to sell out Darlington, Wade promised talks on technology and future closed shop claims.
It was at this point that the Darlington chapel leadership failed its test. The objective need was for a demand to step up the strike.
But Darlington has deliberatley cultivated a 'moderate' approach. The strike. committee, under intense pressure, would have had to ditch this to find the correct road.
It is not surprising that they did not. It is none the less wrong for that.
The strike committee claims that the spreading of the strike will follow if the management fails to respond.
But other chapels, waiting since September to join the strike, are likely to face rebellion in their own ranks at the on/off/on/off tactics and the way that their support has been used simply as a bargaining counter to be bartered.
The strike is not yet over and an intransigent Westminster Press management will undoubtedly reject such tacit agreements.
What is now required from the Darlington chapel is a clear call for escalation and for all Westminster Press journalists to lobby the next NUT executive meeting on Friday.