Mirror Writers Firm on £3000 Pay Strike

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The claim for an extra £3,000 a year by journalists on the Mirror group of newspapers in London epitomises all the strengths and weaknesses of the drive for higher wages.

The journalists have given the claim almost total backing, rejecting a management ultimatum which brougni production to a halt last week by 199 votes to one on the Daily Mirror, by 53 to none on the Sunday Mirror and by a similar margin on the Sunday People. A closed shop agreement has ensured the effectiveness of any action.

Scabbing deal

Colleagues in * Manchester who are not in dispute told management, who were trying to arrange a scabbing deal with union officials that if it went ahead: "You will only do it once But journalists are refusing to face the political nature of the task they face in winning their claim and the challenge to the Government which it represents.

The claim i follows a deal with the NGA earlier this year which bought out 90 jobs by offering a flat wage of £174 each.

Technology

NUJ members who have accepted the prospect of new technology but rejected redundancies, decided to draw up a flexibility claim.

They costed such things as constant availability, disruption of family life, creating ideas for a story, and unpaid overtime and came up with a bill for an extra £5,845 a year which they then reduced to £3,000 on top of the £7,400 average wage now paid.

The management offer, which has now been withdrawn on Government instructions, has been described as in the order of £1.700 but was even further from the claim than it appeared.

The offer included the Phase 2 f4 (which NUJ members say should be paid as well as the extra £3,000) and it included demands for 50 redundancies which the journalists are not prepared to accept.

The complex nature of the claim with its bizarre clause by clause justification is designed to obscure the question of whether it is inside or outside the Government's 10% pay limit.

While IPC are prepared to play ball in concocting a deal made up of a variety of elements they are not prepared to go within hailing distance of the claim, while the Government is looking over their shoulder.

Apprehension The Mirror is also looking forward with apprehension to the talks with NATSOPA and SLADE over the switch to new technology, and face an extremely high claim if the journalists, who are the weakest section, win.

The confused situation is reflected by the fact that journalists are turning up for work every day and going through the motions of putting a paper together.

They cannot go out of the building on jobs because the cashier's department is closed and will not pay expenses. Even the library has been instructed not to give them information.

Responsible

This state of affairs does not seem strange to some of the Mirror journalists. They were partly responsible for electing the Fleet Street leadership which opposed free collective bargaining at the NUJ annual conference in April.

For the Mirror journalists a break with this kind of double think is essential.

Their target must be,, not convoluted clauses in justification of their claim but an open assault on the wage cutting policies Lab coalition.

Fleet Street journalists are often objectively opposed to the working class. The Mirror journalists could now cast a blow in its support.

Westminster Press management are expected to reject a 'compromise' offer by print union leaders for tacit agreement on an NUJ closed shop agreement at Darlington.

Joe Wade, General Secretary of the NGA has said that his union is prepared to consider some degree of escalation for the strike if this happens.

There is no reason to believe that he will not find another excuse for the NUJ to stall off sympathy action as has happened since September.

The strike, the longest in the NUJ's history, is now 26 weeks old.

NUJ members in. Darlington and London must call for strike action throughout the group in support of their claim and must stop trying to outwit Westminster Press.