A Militant Leaflet for the NGA delegate meeting, June 1972
PRINTERS: FIGHTING POLICY NEEDED
This years' Delegate Meeting of the National Graphical Association (NGA) takes place at a time of turmoil both in printing and in industry generally.
The level of unemployment nationally still hovers around the million mark. This state of affairs is reflected within the printing industry where areas like Manchester and London are feeling the scourge of high unemployment.
According to the NGA Journal 'Print' of February 1972, 209 printing firms closed in Britain since 1968, The NGA research department produced a report which showed that because of the increasing high level of capital necessary for investment, there was a tendency for less labour to be used in industry. The Department of Employment and Productivity Gazette of December 1971 reported that 30,000 jobs connected with paper, printing and publishing disappeared in one year up to October 1971. In industry generally in 1965 23,000,000 British workers produced a value of £29,000,000,000. Five years later, a value of £32,000,000,000 was produced by 400,000 fewer workers. In this situation the demand for the immediate introduction of the 35-hour week in order to safeguard jobs is an absolute must. The closure of Fleetway, the cutback at Southwark Offset and the impending closure of the relatively new Lancashire Colour Printers, to name but a few, overall involving the loss of hundreds of jobs, underlines the urgency for a positive alternative policy. Redundancy should be opposed with the demand for a sliding scale of hours and work sharing without loss of pay.
FOR A LIVING BASIC WAGE
The claim for a living basic wage should be vigorously pursued. The necessity of working overtime should be eliminated. The present 40-hour week is in reality a myth, with the majority of printworkers still working nearer fifty hours a week on a regular basis in order to make ends meet. Whilst the accumulation increase in basic wages of £6.50 since August 1970 is, in relation to the increases of the previous decade, fairly reasonable, the basic wage is still hopelessly inadequate. Printworkers, particularly in this technological age, are entitled to a steadily improving standard of living without sacrificing their leisure to the tedium and drudgery of overtime. The securing of £1 an hour linked with a cost of living bonus, would be a major step in achieving that desired situation.
RE-INTRODUCTION OF THE COST OF LIVING BONUS
The direct and immediate effort that inflation has on the value of wages poses the necessity for the re-introduction of the cost of living bonus which was lost without a fight in 1967. It is estimated that the cost of living increased by 10% between December 1971 and May 1972 - equivalent to a drop in value of 4 shillings in the £ over a 12-month period. To offset this erosion of wages between renewal of agreements the union leaders should make the re-establishment of the cost of living bonus a top priority. Furthermore the present inaccurate Government prices index should not be used as a guide, but one based on increases in the cost of food, fuel, rents and clothing, etc, worked out by the NGA research department.
THE PRESS
The democratic function of the Press is a vital issue to printworkers both from the point of view of continued employment and the availability of resources for the production of newspapers.
In this section of the industry the tendency is for the labour force to be reduced and for the number of national newspapers to decrease as a result of takeovers, mergers, and closures. Thus the threat is twofold: redundancy and private monopolisation of the Press. Since 1960 the closures of the News Chronicle, Empire News, Sunday Despatch, Sunday Citizen and Daily Sketch, plus the takeover of the Sun by the Murdoch organisation underlines this development- a development which is happening in most advanced countries. Newspaper Publishers' spokesmen have stated that the next few years will see further closures.
The present handful of Lords and Knights who control the Press are prepared to see newspapers close with the resulting loss of job and further deterioration of the 'freedom of the Press'. In reality the much vaunted British 'freedom of the Press' rests on a very flimsy basis. The extent of such freedom is determined by the same group of Lords and Knights, who have nothing in common with the Trade Union and Labour Movement.
The position is that the whole of society is organised to produce the maximum profit for the capitalist class. In Britain today some 250 monopolies, which are owned by 7% of the population, control 80% of the nation's wealth. The Press is used by the employing class generally to maintain and improve their position at the expense of the working people. This was exemplified by the scurrilous campaigns waged against the power workers in 1970 and the railway workers more recently; also in relation to 'In Place of Strife' and the Industrial Relation Bill. The fact that sections of the Press supported the miners in their titanic struggle was because they recognised, unlike Heath & Co, the determination of the miners and the deep sympathy which existed for them within the British working class.
An overall view of the propaganda generally expressed by the Press dispels what is merely a cloak of democracy. Under the present circumstances of the private ownership of the Press it is not possible to guarantee the adequate expression of all points of view.
The solution to these problems can only be provided by the organised Trade Union and Labour Movement.
The loss of jobs, the closures, declining Press facilities, in an age when printed matter is becoming increasingly more important and influential, and the private control of the Press by a tiny minority, should be answered by the launching of a campaign for the nationalisation of the Press and the Printing industry under the democratic control of the Trade Union and Labour Movement. The printworkers should be in the vanguard of this campaign.
Most major unions have a clause in their constitution which calls for common ownership of their particular industry. This demand is generalised in clause 4, part-iv, of the Labour Party constitution, which calls for the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. The print unions must adopt this policy and the T.U. and Labour Movement must demand that a future Labour Government implements it.
ONE UNITED UNION
In order to struggle effectively against the employers and the present reactionary Government, the print workers’ unions need to come together with the aim of establishing one united organisation which is prepared to fight on behalf of its members. The present fragmented approach of the unions only creates confusion and even hostility between members of different unions at shop floor level. A determined effort is required by the union leadership, unlike the abortive attempt between NATSOPA and the NUPBW, to bring about a successful amalgamation. This means a serious campaign amongst the different unions to break down any existing prejudices (craft and otherwise) against amalgamation, and to mobilise rank and file support for the implementation of existing NGA policy - one union for the printing industry.
FOR A RESPONSIVE UNION
But immediate steps should be taken to transform the unions into bodies which are sensitive to the wishes of the membership. An alert, responsive TU organisation is essential to deal with the problems which will grow as the crisis of the British economy deepens.
Delegate meetings need to be held annually, with officers at all levels subject to re-election. Salaries of full-time officials should be related to the average wage of the trade in order to maintain the awareness of the officials.
In this way the unions would be transformed into lively, active organs and the conditions laid for a leadership that would be in contact with its rank and file. Such a leadership armed with a policy as sketched out above could give a bold, positive lead to printworkers and to the trade union movement generally, and bring about a solution to the problems which will grow in the years ahead.
ON BEHALF OF NGA MILITANT SUPPORTERS
P&P T Mulhearn, Liverpool
June 1972
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