No editions lost, Court told

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 9

No editions lost, Court told

PA Wellington Not one edition of any of the New Zealand's newspapers has been lost because of the change from old to new printing methods, said the president of the Printing Trades Union, Mr Walter Clement, in the Arbitration Court. Apart from the “New Zealand Herald” in Auckland, which appeared to be in a midway position, all major provincial and metropolitan newspapers as well as most suburban newspapers and ad-

vertising give-aways were produced without the use of movable type, he said. “This remarkable change has been effected almost unnoticed by readers — and without industrial turmoil.” This state of affairs had been assisted by frequent communication between newspaper employers and the printers’ union, he said. Job security had been maintained. The court is considering a iemarcation dispute between ;he printers' union and the

Wellington, Taranaki, and Marlborough Clerical Workers’ Union over Welling;on Newspapers, Ltd, staff in :he classified advertising department, who are using computerised visual display terminals. Mr Clement said that before 1977 employers discussed with his union its attitude to proposals to install electronic equipment for direct input of telephoned advertising. Arising from this and other new technology considerations was the first

national newspaper collective agreement which was registered by the Industrial Commission in April, 1977. Clause 35 of the agreement indicated the union’s unswerving attitude that typesetting was within the jurisdiction of the printers’ union.

“Since first negotiations in 1977, the Newspaper Agreement has been regularly renegotiated without any challenge by the clerical or any other union.”

Since the provisions to cover V.D.T. operators were first included in the 1977 agreement, all daily newspapers in New Zealand had completed or were in the transition of changing over from traditional hot metal composition to the new technology of electronic composition, he said.