CRIMMS - Wapping Dispute

SOCIETY OF GRAPHICAL AND ALLIED
LON.DON BBANCH OF CLERICAL, ADMINISTRATIVE
CAXTON
HOUSE
Branch Secretsry:
.: 13 - 16 BOROUGH
ROAD
.
LONDON
TRADES 1982
AND EXECUTIVE PERSONNEL
SEl OAL
Tel: 01 - 9282388
CHRIS ROBBINS
Assistant Secrecary: BARRY FITZPATRICK
Asststent Secreterv: ANN FIELD
CRIMMS
October· 15, 1985.
To:
Branch
Branch
Officers
Committee
c.c. George Hall,
FOC,
News Group newspapers.
Dear Colleague,.
News
Interna~ional
- The Post
Following d i scu ss i on.s at national level wi th Bupe r t Murdoch, a meeting
was arranged on 11th. October; 1985, the purpose of which was ~or the
Unions to receive the initial presentation from the Company on the
proposed pub l i ca t t on of a newspaper called The Post, to be printed in
the new Wapping complex owned. by News International.
For the Unions we had: Mr. Bill Miles, Mr. Mauric~
Mr. Ted Chatd~ Mr. Chris Robbins, Mr. John Mitbhell,
Mr. Dave Hutchinson, Mr. Alec Mattingley .
.,'
For the Company
secretaries.
there was:
Mr. Bill O'Neal,
Su ck-li ng-,
Mr. Jim 'Carden;
Mr. Brian Thomas
and two
The Company informed us that the new paper woUld be a tabloid and would
have a minimum of 32 pages.
Lt would ini tially be a London even i ng
paper, but leading toward a new 24-hour newspaper.
The circu±ation
area would, be wi thin the .M25 boundaries.
For commercial reasons, the
Company were not prepared to say what they expectea the circulation to be.
The paper would have 5 editions; run from 11 ..
30 a.m. un~il 4.30 p.m.
There would be no colour at all in the new~paper, and the first day of
publication would be March 17th. 1986.
Following that initial presentation,
Bill O'Neal said that he wasn't
able to give any further specifics with regard to staffing Levels,. etc.,
but he waht~d to know what ihe Unions, that is SOGAT's and the NGA's,
position wo~ld be as far as the advertising departments were concerned;
and also wi th regard to the press room,
bo t-h areas where there would
appea r to be some overlap and which may ca us'e difficul ties.
Conti· ....
General Secreterv: W. H. KEYS
.
General President: BRENDA DEAN
,
.
".
~1ri Mi-les
statwe'ct'thai: problelJIS' be tween' the' two U'h'ic)Us should not .:
b,e,,a::nih"ci-pa.-ted;
'a;'na";!:t would:' 'be appropt'la te' tro simply >'c~ontin'lle' "
negot"iatiotl's:_wi t:h SOG.:AT Un'ion and
confron':e the prdfHems, as lthey a rt se-;'
.
.
"
Hill O"Neal said th~t' a: me'e,'tirig ha:d been
P§t(i:ona) , fe,{ef, wh icfi ,was due to be
1- 985 .,,',
'
held
'Efi 11'
ar1'ang'ed w.ith the
on Tuesda y , 15't~.
al so st a ted tha t hi,s~ brie'f1 was to
Post: 'only., and not t.o d'iscus's tl1e: :,S1;l·n
NOA.at
Oc't:ober;
nego,tia te :,the. pnoduc t10n
the New~ b,f th,€! World'.
.:How,ever, he re-,i;'teta'ted
Rupert ,Murdoch:' g, e,ar:lier
sst a t'ernerrt.s .tha t. if
'
'negotia'tioh's,
bri The: .Po s-t ' came' to a:' ',re~s:6ria:l;n¢. con~lus·i.on q;utckly·, ,th:e'n: '"
the qu as'ti on .of the ~Sun <a,rid the: New'S of th:e: ;Worl'(F.·
Goul'd be Lric Lu'de d in .
, ~po~e :t,~I~-s\._",',;" "
','
"
,:.';:'.
Q "Ne'aL
,of 'the
~nd
,,<,'
,',
,:t .. '; ...~[;~.
,,-;
The' Company took' up 1:;:p:eo'f.fer oJ those me,etings,
and. it. was agreed:" '<
·t.~at 9,p,r"own :Bra;~G.hwou,]~dme,et: at '9,.30' a. m. pn Monday!' 14th. Oct;ob,er.'
'The me~tiri'g th~tJ. s:too'd adjCl'tlrrred a~d :I at'tenliEfd' tn.ei, itreeti~g' On' the,
14th. ,i'n cdmpan:y' w.i;t,h Ma'u!'iGe Stickling,;
who, wa~s>d'e'puifi's'in-g 'for' Bi 1-1
Miles;
bdt1'i 'of W;hqrn. will
be attend'fng
'each Bf-an'cnYs ,ri.e'gp:t'f:ations
'
during
ttI.;,e,'9'o~rse pf the weeJt. -'1 alsp ha!i Geo.;q~e_Hf;ll;"j 'Foe", N~ws'
Group New$papers', anq. A9-n Mcija'l,e, deput'y Ji.1QC·, New§ Group Newspapers,'
..
The main
pOints
of our
di.scuss:ion
w_ere':as foLlows:
The, Company' required'
;a, s'elf-sufficient
clerical
advet.ti's1ng
ed,i tori:iH force,
and wOuld not en:visage" any 'servi(~:es' being
by ei the,r Bouve,rie' St,re',et br- G~a:y \'s '{nn Rca,d.
Tbe initial
as f Oll'o"ws':
'
A,dveTtising
both claSsi'f {ed. and di,splay
Circ_uiatiOri
Product i'ort
Adver'tf'sing,
Edi tor ial 's:ervi-ces
'
Library
Gopyt,akers
"
arid
supplied,
areas
were,
,
r
Se Cr_E:~t ar:L e s
Accounts,
Dept .. ,i'ncluding
sales
acco'unts_;.
Ga~sh;i:ers & bought
'ledger.
The Company were unable to gi-v'e us, o,r were not prepar,ed
to g'i"ve us,.
specific
numbers;, which would be r'equired
wI thin the departments..
They
did) .. however." ask for a separate
agreement
to apply" for The, 'Pdst i and
f'or i.t not to De an extEmsinil""of Bouveri~
S,tieet
or TNLr
'The c<?ntent.s of this communication
are not I~gally binding.,
SCX3AT '82
Continuation
Sheet No. 2
I replied on behalf of our Branch and said that we would have no
objection to the agreement being entitled liThe Post", as it was not
unusual in Fleet Street for us to have separate agreements for
separate publications, although, with regard to the Chapel structure,
our. posi t t ori was one of maintaining and extending the existing Chapel
str~cture at Bouverie Str~et~
I .also said that we would submit to the Company a draft
which, in most respects, would be the same as the House
Bouverie Street, with qualifications
only in the areas
specific operations of departments, which would be the
Bouverie. Street as well.
agreement
Agreement in
which covered
norm within
At this point, I asked the Company whether they intended to be part
of the NPA; at which point Mr. O'Neal said that he th.ought we were
already in the NPA and Brian Thomas corrected him, sO.the Company's
answer was he's not sure arid will come back and let us know.
On two specific points, I informed the Company that we would expect
any agreement to ensure a 32~ hour week and six weeks holiday.
We then moved on to the question of direct input, and I informed the
Company that, as far as our Branch was
concerned, we would welcome
direct input, we would negotiate on direct input and we expected to
take advantage of the improved skills, opportunities,
etc., that
direct input would give us.
I also informed the Company that I was obviously
aware that the
NGA may have a pOint of view about this matter, but that we would not
concede that the advertising department was taken
into membership
by'the NGA
to answer the problem of direct input.
With regard to direct input, it appears that the Company wish to use
the most up-to-date technology, whereby the tele ad person would type
the ad direct int~ the computing system and would be correctifig'their
own spelling, make-up, etc. The Company informed us that they saw no
role for readers or readers' assist~nts in the new system and, of.course,
that would presumabiy apply to our own production scrutineers.
The
advertisi~g computer would also act as a credit control department.
We then moved on to the question of flexibility.
Bill O'Neal said
that they would require full flexibility and when asked if this meant
departmental or Chapel flexibility, he said it only related to
departments.
George Hall replied.that
this would not be an insurmountable
problem, as the existing comprehensive agreements in Bouverie Street
allowed for departmental flexibility.
The next and second most important aspect of this meeting concerned
recruitment.
The Company said that they would require a dual
recruitment procedure, which gave the Company the right to employ staff
outside and would not expect td continue the closed shop.
However, they
were prepared to encourage new starters to join our Branch.
The Company also said that all new recruits would be employed on a 6
month probationary period.
We replied by saying that we would expect
the normal recruitment procedures to apply and we would transpose TNL
and NGN for the internal Chapei applicants procedure, and we would
expect the Company to advertise the new jobs at The Post to our members
in both those areas first, then to apply to the Branch and then to have a
free hand as is normal practice.
The contents of this communication are not, legally binding.
"~
Concinuatlon Sheet
No.:
'-:
3
...
.
:.
., '''.
1
' ..
",
~.l
'
"
.everrt of' .the Company not. conceding
the TNL and NGN a~.p.lications
first,
obviously'
we Could' suomi t theII! through. the Br'a'n ch;' We a I so .'.
.
sa i d t.ha-t we would expec t the Compa.ny,t.o ma tn t a Ln 100%, Unfo.g' meinber sh.tp .
In allr the meeting last~d
approximately
2~ hours and it was agreed
tha t we w.ould meet again on the mo-rning of -Ls t ; Novembe.r , 1.985,
e.
'On a.r r a ng ing the new date t I took the opportunity
to tell
Mr" 0' Neal
that we would expect as a Branch for our', negotiations
to continue;
whatever
the ou t come of his nego tLa t Lon s w~.t,h oth.er Chapels and/or
.ot her Uni.o ns .
If ...; of course,
SOG-AT NEe; d~Gide~ tha't;· talks
we: would, talI
in, line with that
dee'd.si:oIL
our talks
to
be
intEir'upted
by
a'ny'·hiccups
..
.
..
Th e point
to
'.
wa s taken up and Bill
Q,'~Neal said
~o alQng With wh~t I. had ~aid.
should
end, th:el1i' of course"
-Howev'ez , I would .no.t
w i.t h- 'other
sei2,tipns.
expect
.
J
i,lj
",
that'
he would be', prepared
All in all,
the meeting was- .a low-key orie,
Nothing wh.Lch was stated
to us was particularly
surprising,
and I'lm quite
sur~ that on most of
the i terns we would' be able to find 'an accommodation.
We asked the Company to begin to
firm ab on the numbefs Df p~ople
they required
in each department,
as it was Obviously
impossible
for
us to' negotiate
wi t.hou t t hos'e fig·ures.
We wantied also for them to
gi ve us ?- general
Ldea: of what . the wa.ge r?ltes; 'arid ge ne r a I conditions
of employm~nt w6uld be.
.
.
.
Finally,
I a.skad t.he Company' if" they dexinitely
intended, to go for
the London Standa~d ~&tket of ad~e~ti~in~
~nd Bill O~N~al ~aid
generally;
yes.
So; in, summary i' tl;lere" s·~
certainly
an oppo.rt.unf t;y for us in the area
of direct
input i~ we are able ~Q get hold of that one,
The staffing
levels
.will he a key; but my main concern,
obv-i ou s l y, ,is go i ng to .be
the effect
on the Staridard.
I
The contents of this communicacion are not legally binding.
I,