Wapping


A lesson from history


Times refusenik Barrie Clement reflects on the Wapping dispute


NIC OATRIDGE I


t was the afternoon of Friday January 24 1986 when we were summoned to a meeting in The Times


newsroom in Grays Inn Road by an uncharacteristically nervous acting- editor Charlie Wilson. The normally belligerent Wilson


mounted a table and wobbled somewhat as he recounted what we already knew. Some 6,000 News International print workers, who produced our paper along with the Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World, had been fired for going on strike over the introduction of new technology.


Then he added something we suspected might happen: we were to report for duty the next day at the company’s new Wapping print works, where henceforth The Times et al would be printed.


Something he didn’t add was that the papers would be produced largely by an army of scabs covertly recruited on the south coast by the renegade electricians’ union on the pretext that they would produce a new daily newspaper. The Times NUJ chapel reluctantly


voted to accept Wilson’s invitation, which was sweetened by a £2,000 handout, worth about £8,000 today. That flew in the face of the NUJ’s


national position which was that members should continue to report for work at their existing workplaces. The Times labour staff of three –


Donald Macintyre, David Felton and myself – decided to make our own decision. After a series of conversations,


12 | theJournalist


one of which involved Harry Conroy, NUJ general secretary at the time, we decided to go with the union’s national position. Greg Neale, then NUJ


father of chapel at The Times, estimates that, initially, only about half a dozen of the paper’s journalists told Murdoch what to do with his bribe. Other colleagues subsequently joined us, making a total of about 20 or so Times refuseniks. Don, David and I were aware


that attempting to cover the labour movement from Fortress Wapping would have been difficult if not impossible. There were other more personal considerations, however. My wife Sue and I had three young sons, a foster daughter and a recently acquired mega-mortgage. Not the most promising basis on which to engage in the class struggle. But Sue said she would support


whatever decision I made – something for which I will always be grateful. I had to back either Rupert Murdoch, who owned News International, or the print workers. No contest for a working class boy from Briton Ferry! Strike pay from the NUJ was enough


to pay my mortgage but I needed freelance work for the rest. The labour staff formed a cooperative – a ‘consortium’ when we spoke to potential employers’. Along with other refuseniks, we met


every Tuesday at the NUJ headquarters in Grays Inn Road to hear the latest news on the dispute and collect our strike pay.


“


Top: March on Fortress Wapping Bottom: Sue and Barrie Clement with their family 40 years ago


From there, we repaired to


the Kolossi, a legendary Greek restaurant which had always been infested by Times and Guardian journalists. Thousands of miles away, former Times labour editor and refusenik Paul Routledge, who had become South East


Asia correspondent, was intermittently kept abreast of the latest goings-on. Together with a fulsome


contribution from the union movement generally and NUJ members in a position to employ us, we kept the wolf from the door. During this time, a superficially emollient Charlie Wilson called me and offered me a job as a sub. I declined. Meanwhile, pickets were being arrested and thousands of employees’ lives were being disrupted. Some print workers were made homeless, some of their marriages were torn apart, some were driven to suicide. Eventually, I decided that, having


Some print workers were made homeless, some of their marriages were torn apart, some were driven to suicide


made my point, my family responsibilities should come first. The nascent Independent had started recruiting and wanted two labour staff. They were persuaded by my two colleagues that they would have to take the three of us or none. They agreed and we left The Times and the dispute. The eventual defeat of the sacked


print workers and Margaret Thatcher’s triumph the previous year over Britain’s miners heralded years of declining influence for unions. As a consequence, over the past 40 years, journalists’ pay has inexorably declined – a process accelerated by the internet and now AI. We need a strong NUJ more than ever.


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