(reported thertwo pickets' who threw spaper owner, or a Labour deny that the Grunwick ackwards to be reasonable go to ACAS, agreed to ader the chairpersonship of uriet, agreed to meet Ward nent of Emloyment, agreed pickets. scan the or a long the Grun- office workers, about: process workers. as of an he Strike strikers"
19ib century:
beginning ugust, over walked put contempt. Socialist Challenge says:
is won;
strikers case.....
What Are We Fighting Against 1.125 for a 35 hour week for 2. t26 for 1 40 hour week for Compulsory overtine: 4. We have only had a increase of between (2 and ela week in the past two years.
In short an employer who pays poverty line wages and forces us to work in feudal like conditions so employer more suited lo the What Are We Fighting For?
2. The night to betang tra Union. botties at the acaba 'coach wore questioned by stewards. Upon which one disappearou eno mo oier sompeo fto a porce cart All this has been thrown back in their faces with *No more concessions to Grunwick racist bosses; *No more concession to law courts and police; *Unlimited mass picketing every day until the strike *Demand the TUC organise sympathetie action; *Demand the police are removed from the picket Strike in thei detenc I, A decent living wage, prope wurking conditions and an end to the abusive and cyrainical attitudes of oi management Dor wage levels are between: 235 and 25 per week less-than the indestriei agreement negaliated hy oneof eu sister unions wich che Asocietion of Fim Laboratory Emplosers?
Stnce then the company has:
Retused to cooperale 10. ap inquiry bondited by ihe Arbi trary, Conciliarian and. Auvison Service. Retived to ascept the con virtually ignored.
So the massive given to the Grunwick struggle Photo: JOHN STUAROCK (Report! last wock may have come as a surprise. But the way the ruling class press handled the struggle was not. Througbout the week, the popular press, the serious press and television acted out their tradicional role propaganda weapon for the ruling class.
on Wednesday 15 June. It was the Picket Line Pay Off' Mory, as the Mirror put it. This was the absurd allegation that the union had offered to pay £50 a week to any scab who joined the strike, that the local Labour council had simiJarly offered a council house and that various scabs had been intimidated homes the previous night.
Every coverage to these stories, repeating management, Ward, Grunwick manager, in particular.
ALLEGATIONS a Brent councillor.
allegations'.claims, the claims as fact when Mated:
proof of these allegations. WEEK AFTER WEEK, month after month, the Fleet Street press have ignored the Grunwick strike. The assaults on pickets by members of management and police, the strikers' demonstrations and the conditions they came out against have all been coverage sinke which ruary...
APEX report was that the The main offensive started in the haller.
Guardian:
their gave wide the allegations of and George sald.
The Mirror devored 40 tines to reporting the claims, and confrontation only four to a derial of the council house bribe story from The Express also reported the allegations at length and the factory. gave one whole sentence to a denial, "Mr Grantham, generul secretary of APEX denied the for cxample The Sun gave 49 lines to the 3 to a denial from union leader told' The Mail even reported on Cit COLLAPSE *On Monday several (of the scabs) were visited by pickets al their homes. Some had their front doors daubed with white paca, again with the inevitable Nor one paper offered any talks'.
their off the pickets."
This cype of "objective' reporting was furcher illustrated in the Telegraph feature on the reported *Mr Ward ordered a ballor in Febwhich revealed only two out of 260 employces wanted to be represented by several months.
What the Telegraph did not strikers were not allowed to take part For that the company had refused to co operate with the ACAS ballot. DO.
The big story on 17 June was the rigged meeting between the scabs and Grantham in the DISTORTIONS factory. This meeting had been previewed in the previous day's *Mr John Gouriet of the National Association for Free dom said he would try arrange a meeting berween Mr Ward and Mr Ray Grantham. "1 have certain proposals that could settie the dispute. depends on how much they are prepared to compromise", he In fact the meeting turned out nothing like a usual nego- from a hype tiation, but a stage managed between some workers and Grantham. course the papers didn't report the faise pretences on which Gouriet had got APEX into last wock.
Only the fixed meeting was tem bers reported, and that in the usual "objective' way. The Express headlined the farce " "We don't want you"
The Sun returned to tbe subject of John Gouriet and Protz. said the collapse was a bitter blow for John Couriet, direc tor of the National Association for Freedom, who set up the LAC A late news item in the same. week. paper informed its readers that NAFF bad made a statesnent saying, "In view of the way the Grunwick workers have made views knowi to Grantham. we bope be willcall The impression from this article is that Gouriet was acting as some neutral nego tiator, and after studying the case had come down on the side of management. The Sun did not mention that NAFF had been the closest advisor for Grunwick management for London's Evening Standard of 17 June devoted a sibole page to the strike, with three separate stories. So you would think the strikers" view would have got in somewhere. Bur One story was made up of quotes from scabs and cheir "terrifying ordeal' in crossing the picket line, another was on the show of force" on the picket and the third was headLined, "Pickets who've never been in a Darkroom".
It went an, 'there are people on the picket line who have never seen the inside ol a photographic dark room. They would not know a developer Although Fleet Street con tinued spewing out lies and distortions, that message did not impress the thousands who turned up outside Grunwick Among them, needs to be said that some were of the National Union of Journalists.
An official circular from the NUJ urged its members to support the strike, and among those who were on the picket were NUJ vice-president Dens MeShane, National Treasures Charles Harkness and National Executive members Jona than Hammond and Roger Their presence went some scull way to compensating for the filch and fairy stories which bave come from the mouths of ruting class media last