Technological changes in printing: union response in three countries

Monthly Labor Review, July, 1985 by Michael Wallace

While there are perhaps many reasons for the failure of U.S. printing unions to retain their traditional control over the allocation of work, an important factor has been the belated and defensive nature of the merger pattern. The printing unions, particularly the ITU, were slow to react to the changes wrought by the new technology and, as a result, turned to mergers out of desperation after questions of jurisdiction over the new technology had already been decided by publishers on a plant-by-plant basis. Lacking a coordinated bargaining strategy at either the national or local level, the unions thus were vulnerable to the actions of the publishers, who demonstrated much more solidarity.

Great Britain

On the surface, the structure of union organization in Britain appears very similar to that of the United States. Whereas there were 12 major unions in the newspaper industry in 1948, there are currently three. The union accounting for most of the skilled craft occupations is the National Graphical Association (NGA). Most of the 10 major unions that ultimately affiliated with the NGA had done so by 1967, prior to large-scale implementation of the new technology in British newspapers. The single union to hold out past 1969, the Society of Litho Artists, Designers, Engravers, and Process Workers (SLADE), ultimately affiliated with the NGA in 1982.

The second major union, the Society for Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT), resulted from the merger, dissolution, and remerger of two major unions. If one traces back far enough, one can see that SOGAT is the culmination of 35 earlier mergers including workers from all parts of the industry--distributors, warehouse workers, maintenance workers, and so forth. SOGAT is more industrial in orientation than the craft-oriented NGA, but is currently the largest printing union in any European country. The third union in the British newspaper industry, the National union of Journalists (NUJ), organizes reporters and editors. But more than its U.S. counterpart, the Guild, the NUJ seeks a broad-based membership of all white-collar workers in the industry.

In contrast to the situation in the United States, the British trade unions have exhibited considerably more unity in their stance on new technology. The NGA and NUJ have established joint committees dealing with technology issues. In general, the journalists have supported the NGA's contention that composing room workers should maintain jurisdiction over direct input of newspaper material into video display terminals (VDT's). This is an important departure from situations in the United States where this issue has remained a divisive factor between the two worker groups.

A critical feature of the British experience has been the ability to maintain a de facto industrywide solidarity at critical times, in contrast to the relative disorganization of employers. This was was clearly evident in the case of an 11-month strike at the London Times in 1979, during which workers joined ranks to support the NGA's contention that its members should control direct inputting. During the strike, while was formed within the Trade Union Congress (TUC--the British equivalent of the AFL-CIO) to coordinate labor strategy among the different unions and in other parts of the country. The victory that was ultimately achieved by the unions as the Times solidified ties between the NGA and NUJ, and set the pattern for the resolution of other conflicts in Britain. Essentially, composing room workers have retained the right to control the leverage they have with publishers.