The Printers...

The printing press required a team of printers to carry out the printing of the paper, but there were only three permanent positions at Stratford, who kept the place ticking over. On the day of the publication the newspaper would ring the "House" in London, this was the name for the union headquarters. The newspaper would give the House the size of the paper and the number of pages that were being printed, and the House would send a number of men down to the printing press to help with the job. Peter recounts just how powerful the unions were at that time. For example the owners of the paper could not send back any men they didn't need even if the job could be run on less than the stipulated number sent by the House. The unions remained a powerful presence right up until the introduction of new technology and the Eddie Shah/Rupert Murdoch revolution.