Trade unions, news media strategies and newspaper journalists

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Trade unions, news media
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VOL. NO. CLASS MARK
2 7 JUN 1997
0401294501
11111
'Trade Unions, News Media Strategies and Newspaper Journalists'
by
Paul Manning.
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Loughborough University of
Technology.
24th November 1995.
©by Paul Manning 1995.

'Trade Unions, News Media Strategies and Newspaper Journalists.'
Section One Communications, Power and Trade Unions
I. Introduction: Trade Unions and Their 'Enemies Front Line Troops'. Page I.
2. Trade Unions, Power, Ideology and Communications. Page 31.
Section Two Trade Unions as News Sources
3. What the Union Papers Say. Page 71.
4. Briefing for the Union: the practice of trade union press officers and their
internal environment. Page 110.
5. Press Officers, Correspondents and the Inside Track. Page 136.
Section Three Reporting the Unions: Correspondents and the Labour Group.
6. The Rise ofLabour Journalism: 1930-1979. Page 170.
7. Thatcher, the State and the Decline of Labour Journalism: 1979
and After. Page 205.
8. Union News and Communication Work: the Journalists'
Perspective. Page 240.
Section Four 'New' Union News Work: an Assessment.
9. The 1989 Ambulance Dispute: a Case Study in 'New' Union News
Work. Page.272.
10. Conclusions. Page 314.
Notes to Chapters. Page 323.
References. Page 353.
Appendices. Page 369.
Tables
Table One. The Distribution ofltems by Coding Categories. Page 77.
Table Two. Distribution of'Government' and 'Other Parties' Items. Page SI.
Table Three. Distribution of'Industrial Action' Items by Journal. Page S4.
Table Four. Distribution of'Causes' of Action. Page SS.
Table Five. Distribution of 'Effects' oflndustrial Action. Page S7.
Table Six. Percentage ofltems by Category and Journal. Page 92.
Table Seven. Backgrounds of Union Press Officers. Page 131.
Table Eight. A Chronology of the Ambulance Dispute. Page 290.
Illustrations
Illustration One. The COHSE Journal, December 19SS. Page 9S.
Illustration Two. The COHSE Journal, July 19S9. Page 99.
Illustration Three. The COHSE Journal, September 19SS. Page 101.
Illustration Four. The COHSE Journal, January 1990. Page 101.
Illustration Five. Contact (EETPU), June 19S9. Page 107.
Illustration Six. Daily Express, 15th September 1989. Page 294.
Illustration Seven. The Guardian, 14th September 19S9. Page 297.
Illustration Eight. The Sun; 24th February 1990. Page 311.
Diagram
Diagram One. The Position of Trade Union Press and Media Officers within
the Union Organisation. Page 121.
Abbreviations
ACTT Association of Cinematographic, Television and Allied Technicians.
AFL-CIO American Federation ofLabor- Congress oflndustrial Organisations
APEX Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff
ASTMS Association of Scientific Technical and Managerial Staff
AUE Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers
AUEE Amalgamated Union of Engineering and Electrical Workers
CPSA Civil and Public Services Association
COHSE Confederation of Health Service Employees
EETPU Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union.
GMB National Union of General and Municipal Workers
IPMS Institute of Professional and Managerial Staff
LIPA Labor Institute of Public Affairs
MSF Manufacturing, Services and Finance Union
NALGO National Association ofLocal Government Officers
NEDDY National Economic Development Council
NGA National Graphical Association
NUCPS National Union of Civil and Public Servants
NUHKW National Union of Hosiery and Knitwear Workers
NUKFA National Union ofKnitwear, Footwear and Apparel Trades
NUM National Union ofMiners
NUPE National Union of Public Employees
NUS National Union of Students
NUT National Union of Teachers
NUTGW National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers
POEU Post Office Engineering Union
TA SS Transport and Salaried Staff Association
TGWU ('T and G') Transport and General Workers Union
TUC Trade Union Congress
UCW Union of Communication Workers
WIRS Workplace Industrial Relations Survey
Chapter One.
Introduction: trade unions and their 'enemies front line troops'.
Why study the relationship between trade unions and the mass media, yet again? After
all, the question of how trade unions were represented in the news media was all but
fully exhausted almost twenty years ago. Since then, unions have hardly acquired
greater political significance, as their membership bases have haemorrhaged and they
have been bounced off the political centre stage by a government determined to re-cast
workplace relations in ways which afford trade unions only a 'supporting' role at best.
They are regarded by journalists, particularly those who cut their professional teeth
during the height ofMrs Thatcher's 'reign', as relics from an earlier and quite
different historical period. And now, as a consequence of the huge erosion in
membership, even the TUC, itself, is having to implement major cut backs in
resourcing and impose a cost-saving re-organisation of its departmental structure. There
is no better symbolic representation of the TUC' s recent history than the changes which
have occurred at its London headquarters, Congress House, where the TUC's own
administrative apparatus has shrunk from four floors to two and rooms along empty
corridors are now rented out to commercial companies.
At first glance, then, there seems little justification for rehearsing old arguments and
exploring dated material. However, while the status of union elites as 'political
insiders' in the past might be questioned, there seems little doubt that unions now must
be regarded as 'outsiders' (1). There remains quite a lot that media sociology has yet to
explore concerning the nature of the relationship between the news media and
politically marginalised groups. How do such groups seek access to the news
production process and how successful can they hope to be?
At an even more fundamental level these questions point to issues which should
always be of concern to sociologists and those interested in how societies reproduce and
disseminate ideas. Seventeen years ago Golding and Murdock complained that, too
often, a sociology of the mass media was severed from wider questions regarding
stratification and power (1977:2-13). It remains as true today that,
"Groups can remain dominant only if they have the resources to
reproduce their dominance. This is not only true economically,
but also socially, culturally, and especially ideologically."
(Van Dijk,l991:32).
The mass media in general and the news media in particular, will inevitably reflect the
most important relations of domination and subordination in society and will play an
important part in their reproduction. As such relations change, so such changes will be
reflected in the politics and practices of news production. An interest in the ways in
which subordinate groups mobilise symbolic, communicative and material resources to
intervene in the news production process should be a perennial preoccupation not only
for media sociologists but for all those concerned with the ways in which power is
reproduced.
Relations between capital and labour remain not the only but one of the most crucial
patterns of domination and subordination in late capitalist societies, such as Britain, and
continue to be characterised by both material and symbolic conflict. Trade unions have
long played an important part in defending the interests of labour against capital but
they have also played a part as ideological agencies in the continued reproduction of
such patterns of subordination. Although Engels described unions in England as
'schools of war', according to Hyman they should be regarded as 'at one and the same
time, part of the problem and part of the solution, a form of resistance to capitalism
and a form of integration within capitalism' (Hyman 1985:123). Of course, the view
that trade unions help to incorporate oppositional sections in the workforce, as well as
articulate their demands, is hardly a new theme. A variety of writers have sought to
describe the politically contradictory position that unions may find themselves in, both
at the structural level (for example, Anderson,1967; Coates and Topham,l980;
Milliband,1991: ch3) and in terms of the micro-politics of the workplace (for example,
Lane and Roberts,l971; Nichols and Benyon,l977). As the political relationships of the
post-war settlement crystallised, so the contradictory position of trade unions was
thrown into sharper relief, prompting theorists of corporatism to describe formal union
organisations in terms of an integrative politics (for example, Middlemas,1979) and
writers further to the left, to describe unions as 'the brokers between labour and the
state' (Milliband,1982:56).
So in the past, formal union organisations have often generated contradictory
political impulses, expressed both in terms of the mobilisation of material and symbolic
resources. However, relations of domination and subordination are never static and
over the last fifteen years, both formal and unofficial union organisations have been
subjected to a ferocious political assault directed from the centre of government which
has, paradoxically, delineated more clearly the traditional political role of unions in
defending the interests of labour.
Given the role of the mass media in both reflecting and reproducing the most
important patterns of domination and subordination, the heightened tensions and shifts
in the balance of forces between capital and labour will find expression in the work of
the news media. If such conflicts are of both a material and symbolic nature then it is
likely that the news media, themselves, will be identified as an arena through which
material and symbolic resources will be mobilised by the groups engaged in conflict.
This is not to suggest that the news media can be conceived as neutral arenas or 'level
playing fields',- particular news media will be characterised by particular ideological
configurations which present specific difficulties and opportunities for those seeking
access to the process of news production. Neither is it to suggest that such processes are
new. The reverberations of the conflicts between capital and labour are always likely to
surface through the practice and output of the news media. However, in times of
exacerbated conflict such reverberations are louder and the strategic political
importance of the news revealed all the more clearly for those groups engaged in
conflict. This is why the issue of news communication is always likely to be identified
by both trade unionists and the representatives of capital as of particular importance
2