One Thing That's Wrong With British Papers

One thing that's wrong with British Papers A royal commission has placed on the desks of British publishers a 239-page report with a chilling punch line: journalism's printing craft unions are bleeding the British press to death.

This stark conclusion was reached by five commission members appointed by Prime Minister Macmillan to examine a rising mortality rate in the British press. During almost two years of investigation, the commission, headed by Sir Hartley Shawcross, onetime Attorney General in the postwar Labor government, heard witnesses from both labor and management --although not all of the commission's summonses were obeyed. "We are regretfully forced to conclude," said the report, in noting that the paper workers' and lithographers' unions declined to cooperate with the inquiry, "that the real reason why each of them refused was fear of what might be revealed."

But from those who did appear the commission gathered evidence of appalling inefficiency and waste--much of it directly traceable to union featherbedding practices. A management consultant firm retained by the commissioners found symptoms of serious overemployment: one out of every three men involved in the production and distribution of newspapers, the firm reported, could be discharged without any impairment of efficiency. Other findings:

> Presses running consistently under capacity because of exorbitant union labor demands. The commission cited the experience of the Daily Telegraph, which was able to boost its press speed by 2,000 copies an hour (from 25,000) only after meeting union demands that it hire 17 more printers.

> Excessive--and largely unnecessary--labor costs. On four big dailies alone--the Express, Mirror, Mail and Times--this amounted to $6,720,000 a year. Only a tiny fraction of this went to administrative and editorial staffers.

>Archaic labor techniques, frozen in place by union prerogative. The report took wry note of a four-year labor-management negotiation in which newspaper bundle tiers agreed to the installation of new bundle-tying machines--so long as their use cost not a single man his job.

> The highest wage scale in British industry--some $14 a week above the industry-at-large rate.

Although holding the unions to account, the commission also laid blame at management's door. By yielding to incessant labor demands, said the report, the press only perpetuates the very extravagance and waste that spell financial disaster. Said the report darkly: if Fleet Street's willingness to go along with union featherbedding "were to form the pattern for all industries, it would be disastrous to the economy of the nation." The commission urged publishers to stiffen their resistance to labor, even suggested a way: the same united-front defense that prevails in many U.S. cities, where, by management agreement, all papers stop publishing when one is struck.

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