Wapping dispute
Print unions tried to block distribution of The Sunday Times, along with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News International group, after production was shifted to a new plant in Wapping in January 1986.
[citation needed] In the next two years Britain's national newspapers opened new plants and abandoned Fleet Street, adopting the new technology with far fewer employees.
On the other hand, the News International management team, led by Bill O'Neill,[6] was seeking terms that the union considered unacceptable: flexible working, a no-strike clause, the adoption of new technology and the end of the closed shop.
Despite the widespread use of the offset litho printing process elsewhere, the Murdoch papers, in common with the rest of Fleet Street, continued to be produced by the labour-intensive hot-metal Linotype method, rather than being composed electronically.
Journalists could input copy directly, which reduced the need for labour in the print halls, cut costs and shortened production time dramatically.
[clarification needed] Immediately after the strike was announced on 24 January 1986, dismissal notices were served on all those taking part in the industrial action, effectively sacking 6,000 employees.
Like the miners' strike, large demonstrations were mounted to dissuade workers – in this case, TNT's drivers as well as journalists and operators of the new printing process – from entering the premises, and a large police operation used force to ensure they were not able to physically stop the movement of TNT's lorries distributing newspapers from the plant.
[10] Despite some public sympathy for the plight of the pickets, the boycott of Wapping's news titles was not successful,[11] and not a single day of production was lost throughout the year of the dispute's duration.
[citation needed] News International's strategy in Wapping had strong government support, and enjoyed almost full production and distribution capabilities and a complement of leading journalists.
People in Wapping were largely viewed by the police as sympathetic to the strikers, and were frequently denied access to their own streets and homes.
[citation needed] By 1988, nearly all the national newspapers had abandoned Fleet Street to relocate in the Docklands, and had begun to change their printing practices to those being employed by News International.
