British Printers Yield, End Bitter Strike : Union Defeat Expected to Accelerate Collapse of Organized Labor

In a development expected to have a major impact on the conduct of industrial relations in Britain, a bitter, yearlong dispute between militant production workers and publisher Rupert Murdoch collapsed Friday with the defeat of two trade unions that once epitomized the strength of British organized labor.

Following a marathon emergency session Friday, leaders of the militant National Graphical Assn. announced that the union would stop picketing Murdoch’s News International Ltd. in East London and formally end the dispute.

“Our members must feel quite sickened,” said the union’s general secretary, Tony Dubbins.

Lack of Support

Friday’s step followed a similar announcement Thursday by a larger production union, the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades.

Under legislation enacted in 1980, shortly after Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, both unions faced potentially crippling fines for violating a court injunction barring them from picketing the plant.

Also, the absence of support from other unions had enabled Murdoch’s four national newspapers, including the prestigious Times and Britain’s largest-circulation tabloid, the Sun, to appear without visible interruption.

Answering hard-liners’ accusations of a sellout, Brenda Dean, general secretary of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades, appeared to sum up the totality of the defeat.

Power Has Been Lost

“As regards a sellout, there is nothing left to sell out,” she said. “We have not been able to stop the papers.”

The end of the dispute--which started in January of last year in an effort to stop Murdoch from switching to computerized editorial and production systems that would mean substantial reductions in production staffs--seemed to symbolize the end of an era in which powerful unions virtually dictated the terms for producing Britain’s national newspapers.

The period was characterized by overmanning estimated at 50% to 300%, a total boycott of computerized technology, and wage scales that were among the highest in the country.

The end of the dispute is expected to accelerate the decline of union power at other national newspapers and also affect the atmosphere in other areas of British industry.

Decline in Union Militancy

“This is bound to have an impact on the overall climate of industrial relations in the country,” said Hussein Kaya, who monitors trade union affairs for the Confederation of British Industries.

The defeat of the printers reflects one of the most significant changes of the 1980s in British society: the decline of a trade union militancy that has dogged industrial relations, sapped the country’s economic strength and made the term British disease a euphemism for labor problems everywhere.

The failure of the print unions against Murdoch follows the collapse of the coal miners’ strike nearly two years ago and is likely to diminish further the trade union leaders’ taste for confrontational tactics.

The number of official strikes in Britain over the past two years has been among the lowest in this century. An unemployment rate of 11% has played a part in this change, but laws enacted by the Thatcher government have been a crucial factor. They have democratized unions, sharply diminishing the capability of union leaders for arbitrary action, and made secondary picketing illegal.

Military-Style Operation

In return for ending the dispute, Murdoch has reportedly agreed to resubmit a generous compensation package that includes $75 million for about 5,500 printers he fired after they went on strike to protest his plan to shift to computerized technology.

In a military-style operation, Murdoch transferred the editorial and printing operations of all four papers overnight to a modern new plant in East London that he had built supposedly to produce a new paper.

Members of the electricians’ union hired to operate the new plant refused to join the printers, and Murdoch won a court injunction against the printers’ picketing of the new plant, technically a new company and, thus, a secondary picket.

Periodic demonstrations took place outside the new plant in the course of the strike, and occasionally the pickets clashed with police. Last month, more than 50 police officers were injured when about 10,000 demonstrators overturned cars and hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails.