THE IMPACT OF NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE STRUCTURE AND ORGANISATION OF CRAFT UNIONS IN THE PRINTING INDUSTRY
| Published date | 01 March 1983 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1983.tb00118.x |
| Date | 01 March 1983 |
| Author | John Gennard,Steve Dunn |
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN
THE
MODERN CORPORATION
17
THE IMPACT OF NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE STRUCTURE
AND ORGANISATION
OF
CRAFT UNIONS
IN
THE PRINTING
INDUSTRY’
JOHN GENNARD*
and
STEVE DUNNI.
IN
1948
there were ten craft unions
in
the printing industry. Today there is only one.
Traditionally craft unions
in
the industry have organised on the basis of a job
within
two broad printing processes-letterpress and lithography. There were eight unions
on
the letterpress side, (these were the London Society of Compositors, the
Association
of
the Correctors
of
the Press, the Printing Machine Managers Trade
Society, the Typographical Association, the Scottish Typographical Association, the
Monotype Casters and Typefounders Society, the National Society of Electrotypers
and Stereotypers and the National Union
of
Press Telegraphists), and two
on
the
lithographic, (these were the Amalgamated Society of Lithographic Printers, and the
Society of Litho Artists, Designers, Engravers, and Process Workers). The
demarcation between jobs within and between the two processes was clear. Only the
non craft manual unions organised across the processes, (the two main unions here
were the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants (NATSOPA) and the
National Union
of
Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers. These two unions were
to
merge
in
1966
to
form the Society
of
Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT) but
were to ‘divorce’ and amalgamate again
in
1982
to form SOGAT
82).
Technological developments in the
1950s
and
1960s
led to an expansion in the
lithographic process at the expense
of
letterpress. One result was a series
of
amalgamations and transfer
of
engagements amongst the letterpress craft unions such
that by
1967
there was in England and Wales only one craft union, the National
Graphical Association (N.G.A.),
to
be found in letterpress printing.2 In the late
1960s
web offset machines, which employed both the letterpress and lithographic processes,
were introduced into the industry
on
a significant scale and led the Amalgamated
Society of Lithographic Printers to transfer their engagements
to
the N.G.A.
in
1969.
During the following decade technological change, affecting all parts of the printing
production process at gathering speed was far more profound. By the
1980s
microprocessor based ‘information technology’ had begun to make its influence.
Under pressure from these changes the Society
of
Litho Artists, Designers, Engravers
and Process Workers (SLADE) amalgamated with the N.G.A. to form in March
1982
a single craft union for the printing industry-N.G.A.
(1982).
This union is
in
amalgamation talks with the National Union
of
Journalists (N.U.J.) and is looking
towards links with other media unions, for example, the Association of Broadcasting
Staffs, (ABS) and the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied
Technicians (ACTT).
The technological developments in printing techniques over the last decade threaten
the craft unions’ control of
the
printing process based on the composing room
in
the
case of the N.G.A. and the processing room
in
that of SLADE. This is manifest in the
introduction
of
direct entry production systems particularly within national and
provincial newspapers and planographic systems
in
the
illustration area. The new
developments have also led to the growth
of
an alternative printing industry consisting
of
instant print shops, in-plant printing operations in local government, banks,
insurance companies and manufacturing industry, the preparation of material for
*
Professor
of
Industrial Relations, University
of
Strathclyde.
t
Lecturer in Industrial Relations, Kingston Polytechnic.
17
18
BRITISH
JOURNAL
OF
INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS
printing in art studios and advertising agencies, and print origination in publishing
houses. In addition the unions face the challenge of information becoming increasingly
disseminated by electronic devices for example teletext, viewdata, on-line information
systems, cable television, local radio, rather than by paper.
-
Room
Composing Foundry
Room
CRAFT CONTROL UNDER OLD
TECHNOLOGY
Traditionally, a newspaper proprietor, for example, wishing to produce origination
(news stories, advertisements and
so
on) required compositors, readers to correct their
work, electrotypers and stereotypers in his foundry where plates weremade and
machine minders in his machine room (See fig.
1).
All these N.G.A. craftsmen for the
Association had secured a pre-entry shop through which they maintained tight control
over the production process. This control operated in three ways. First the union
limited the number
of
apprenticeships by which over a
5
or
6
year period the skills
needed to set type
or
assemble pages were acquired. Second N.G.A. membership and
therefore access to craft jobs were limited to those who had served such an
apprenticeship.
To
guard against dilution, the Father
of
the Chapel (F.O.C.) ensured
that new workers coming into the chapel had a union clearance card from the Branch
Distribution
FIGURE
1
Print Craft Union Control in Newspaper Industry
-
Editorial
Secretary showing their suitability to fill a vacancy. In effect this meant that the
Association supplied labour to the employer. Third, to prevent employers
circumventing the N.G.A.’s control system by tapping alternative sources of labour,
the union operated Rule
43
which stated ‘A member shall not perform any work that
has either been received from
or
is going to an unrecognised office. In
no
circumstances shall any matter produced in an unrecognised office
or
matter which is
likely to assist an antagonistic employer be handled by a member of the Association
except by permission of the National Council in consultation with the branch
or
branches concerned.’
A similar system was used by SLADE in the area
of
design and illustration. Before
the introduction of photographic techniques illustrations were produced in printed
form by craftsmen creating the picture by engraving on wood
or
metal
or
by
lithography. SLADE, like the N.G.A. limited aces to such skills through
apprenticeship quotas which restricted entry to the Society, except in special
circumstances and by the ‘White Card’ procedure whereby no member could approach
a firm until he had received from the Branch Secretary a card
of
introduction to the
F.O.C.
or
a telegram to the same effect and had contacted the F.O.C. and received a
reply from him.
By such means the craft unions in the newspaper industry dominated the production
system, although at either end of the process other unions exerted much less influence.
For
example, the depositing
of
advertisements
in
the editorial copy bank was done by
largely unorganised female workers, a minority being members of SOGAT, whilst
among journalists the majority of whom were in the N.U.J.
or
I.O.J., closed shops
were uncommon despite concerted local campaigns to secure them. On the
distribution side, SOGAT was rather more effectively organised through the closed
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