SEVEN participants in the three year-long National Union of Journalists strike at Pergamon Press - the longest dispute in recent British history - are to launch a new campaign for reinstatement and full trade union rights at the Oxford publishing house's parent company.
The dispute was officially ended last month after the 23 strikers took a majority decision to accept a derisory financial settlement. The £85,000 payment amounts to a mere £1,350 per journalist for each year of the dispute.
Using the NUl's deep financial crisis as a pretext, the union's leadership progressively whittled strike pay down from 100 per cent to £40 a week to zero, leaving many of the strikers with the feeling that eventual deal was the best obtainable. The chapel has been formally dissolved.
Butall those who rejected the offer are to continue the fight for union rights at Pergamon's Dutch owners Elsevier, one of Europe's biggest publishers. The firm is planning to build a new plant in Oxford - and clearly its refusal to compromise on the Pergamon issue suggests unions will not be recognisedthere.
Print and general unions in Holland will be centrally involved in the ongoing campaign, and may be in a position to fund the work.
Pergamon striker Anna Wagstaff told trade paper UK Press Gazette: "There is scope for a strong campaign in the Netherlands. This is not going to be the only dispute the Dutch trade unions are going to be dealing with.
"Alİ industries а то threatened by the fact that Britain's lousy trade union legislation means it is going to become the Taiwan of western Europe."
The campaign has already won support of many prominent militants in the NUJ. Following the election of PerFather of Chapel Jim oumelha as joint president ol the union, official backing is likely to follow.
Contact Bill on 0865 724452 for more details. A meeting for sup porters in London will be held at the Sols Arms pub, Hampstead Road, NW1 (nearest tube: Warren Street) at 6.30pm on October 7.