Murdoch, unions near deal

Press, 11 February 1981, Page 9

Murdoch, unions near deal

NZPA London Hopes of reaching agreement on Rupert Murdoch’s take-over bid for Times Newspapers soared yesterday when he reported that “substantial progress” had been made at a meeting with print union leaders. A new disputes procedure was agreed, as well as al three-month wage freeze,) after some “hard bargaining” at a six-hour meeting in London. However, agreement has still to be reached on the critical issues of what Mr Murdoch likes to call “demanning” (redundancies), and this must be sorted out by the deadline set on the deal (Friday. N.Z. time), otherwise Mr Murdoch will pull out. ) Mr Murdoch said after the latest meeting “we have made a very big step forward, and can leave here with much more optimism. There nas been goodwill shown by both sides and we have cleared a lot of hurdles today.” Redundancies at Times Newspapers would be arrived at “on a voluntary basis,” he said. Mr Murdoch had flown to London last week for the talks. Union leaders also said that they were more hopeful now that an agreement cou’d be reached “The Times” reported yesterday that Mr Murdoch had agreed to appear before the British House of Commons Select Committee on Education, Science and the Arts to clarify the position of the three supplements, which are weekly papers on literature, education, and higher education.