Printing Trade Unions — A Financial Study of Multi‐millionaires
| Pages | 17-21 |
| Published date | 01 April 1987 |
| Date | 01 April 1987 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055101 |
| Author | Steve Oram |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Printing Trade
Unions — A
Financial
Study of Multi-
millionaires
by Steve Oram
Director of Personnel, Financial Times
Introduction
Publicity was given in the media recently to financial
pressures faced by the two main printing trade unions, the
National Graphical Association (NGA 1982) and the Society
of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT 82)[1].
The former's membership is primarily made up of skilled
craftsmen in composing and machine operations in the
printing industry, although in recent years the union has
attempted to recruit members in non-production areas of
the business, for example, advertising. The union is the result
of a number of mergers, practically all involving craft unions,
with the majority occurring since 1964.
SOGAT has developed from a very large number of mergers
which have taken place through both the 19th and 20th
centuries. The union represents members in the printing,
publishing and paper industries, and includes skilled, semi-
skilled and unskilled workers.
This article examines and attempts to put into perspective
the financial position of the two trade unions in more recent
years.
It seeks to achieve this by taking a variety of financial
criteria, including ratios of income and expenditure per
member, and comparing those for the printing trade unions
with each other and with averages for all trade unions. The
study is based on annual trade union returns to the
Certification Office, annual reports from the Certification
Officer, trade union journals and internal documents, and
selected "quality" newspaper reports. Discussions also took
place with Certification Office representatives in order to
clarify the method of compilation of the annual report
statistics from data contained in the trade union annual
return (Form AR21). The return is supposed to include trade
union funds held at national and branch levels, except those
held in social accounts. However, for 1985, although the
NGA included all necessary branches except Guernsey,
SOGAT confirmed the omission of five branches which had
estimated assets of just under £0.5 million.
In summary, the conclusions drawn show that whilst the
printing trade unions face severe financial problems, they
are caused through comparatively heavy levels of
expenditure relative to those of other British unions. There
is a question of how much longer the membership in either
or both unions will tolerate the funding of such levels of
spending,
irrespective of the fact that heavy expenditure
often relates to sizeable membership benefits paid to
minority groups.
It must be said that a consistent financial comparison, based
on published statistics over the years, is hindered by
amalgamations which took place in 1982 between the NGA
and SLADE (Society of Lithographic Artists, Designers,
Engravers and Process Workers), and SOGAT and NATSOPA
(National Society of Operative Printers and Media
Personnel). Consequently, financial returns made to the
Certification Office were different from the normal financial
year, in the case of the NGA six months to March 1982 and
then 18 months to September 1983. For SOGAT, returns
were made for nine months to July 1982 and then for 15
months to September 1983.
Income
Statistics provided by the NGA in past years demonstrate
that income contributions per member have shown very
substantial increases since 1980 (see Table I). For the 1984
financial year, NGA members gave just over one-and-a-half
times the average per head for all trade unions. It is
interesting to note that, despite increases through the years,
the relative position to the trade union average was
consistent with that prevailing in 1976. To demonstrate
further levels at which members have had to fund the union,
in 1981, NGA contributions per member were more than
double the average for all trade unions. More recent data
confirmed that the NGA still enjoyed financial support from
members considerably in excess of that normally obtained
from trade unionists.
In comparison, from 1976, SOGAT nearly always fell below
levels of NGA membership income per head, a notable
exception being in 1984 when contributions jumped well
ahead those for the NGA. On the other hand, SOGAT has
enjoyed higher levels of financial support from members
when compared with the rest of the trade union movement.
This was especially the case in recent years. For example,
ER 9,4 • 1987 17
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