Abstract
In part one of the historical account, it is men’s entry into printing that is examined: the early control of the Stationer’s Company, a craft guild, the demise of the system and how this translated into a highly gendered and sectionalised form of trade unionism that was hostile to women’s encroachment on what was claimed as ‘men’s work’. The importance of male identity, itself so naturalised that it was invisible, in conjunction with developing class relations provides a likely causation for how gender relations developed. Employers’ and men’s early access to key power resources becomes apparent, and the utilisation of twin strategies of exclusion and segregation is foregrounded. The damaging nature of sectionalism, it is argued, exacerbated the challenges facing the union by the 2000s.
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- 1.
See Glossary for explanation of the three processes.
- 2.
Guilds were voluntary organisations to which members paid contributions and swore an oath. The printing guild was specifically set up to regulate trade and control apprenticeship. Guilds particularly flourished in London, but they had mostly died out by the late eighteenth century (Gardiner and Wenborn 1995).
- 3.
Journeymen were printers who had completed a full seven-year apprenticeship.
- 4.
Trade societies were the forerunners of the trade unions; their purpose was ‘to protect their standard of life from the depressing effects of industrialization’ (Child 1967: 49) and also provided, for example, sickness and funeral benefit.
- 5.
This was legislation passed in 1799 and 1800 forbidding the formation of combinations of workers aimed at improving wages and conditions. Such combinations were regarded as subversive, especially in wartime (Gardiner and Wenborn 1995).
- 6.
The Call Book was a daily record of unemployed members and ‘honourable tramps’ who would be sent in order of length of unemployment to fill vacancies notified either by employers or other members. It was kept at the local office or society house (Child 1967: 127–128).
- 7.
Balancing time refers to the practice whereby each working day stands alone and lost time on one day cannot be claimed back from the worker by making him work overtime at standard rates. This remained a rule even in the GPMU rulebook.
- 8.
Progression referred to methods whereby men got access to craft jobs even though they had not undertaken an apprenticeship. They did this by virtue of the length of time they had actually been doing a job already and by serving a period of time in the union after which they were regarded as skilled men. In later periods this continued to be a controversial route to acceptance.
- 9.
The P&KTF was the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation. This organisation was formed in 1901 to provide a means of co-ordinating the activities of the various print unions and to help resolve inter-union disputes. It had no right, however, to interfere in internal union management (Gennard 1990: 12).
- 10.
Employers did not know how to cost and, therefore, charge for work, often making losses, especially where equally ignorant employers drastically undercut each other. Federation would provide experts to help companies produce proper costings for work performed (Howe 1950: 7–8).
- 11.
See Glossary for description of this process.
- 12.
See Glossary for description of these processes.
- 13.
General Printing covers ‘packaging, advertising materials, security printing, business forms, books, periodicals, magazines, stationery and catalogues’ (Gennard and Bain 1995: 22–23). It consisted of a large number of small firms, some medium-sized firms and a small number of large firms.
- 14.
The British Federation of Master Printers (BFMP), established in 1900, took its membership from companies in general print and later became known as the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF).
- 15.
The federations were the BFMP and the Newspaper Society (NS) which used to conduct joint negotiations right through until 1980. The dispute in that year led the NS to break away and conduct its own negotiations in order to avoid being caught up in general print disputes. The NS covered employers in provincial newspapers.
- 16.
See Glossary for technical description.
- 17.
See Glossary for description of this process.
- 18.
Inplant print workers were non-printers (sometimes female) in non-print companies operating fairly basic printing equipment. Local government was a common site for this incursion into printing employment. The NGA did try to follow some of this work into the offices but was unsuccessful in convincing the TUC to allow it.
- 19.
The News International printed the Sun, News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times originally in Fleet Street but in early 1985 Murdoch moved to a new plant at Wapping, part of London’s docklands, without taking his existing workforce with him. The resulting dispute lasted 12 months, and the unions—mainly SOGAT and NGA—failed to gain access to the jobs which were filled by EETPU labour, much of it bussed in from Southampton. The dispute concerned the conditions that would apply to the new technology at Wapping, such as a no strike clause, no closed shop, a different disciplinary procedure for reps and the unfettered right to manage (Gennard and Bain 1995).
- 20.
The NUJ went on to sign a variation on this proposal called the NUJ/NGA Accord.
- 21.
This refers to an internal report compiled by Jeremy Waddington, UMIST, on reasons for union membership and was part of a much larger academic study.
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Dawson, T. (2018). The Development of the Printing Industry: Workers’ and Employers’ Organisation. In: Gender, Class and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58594-3_3
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