The Good The Bad and The Ugly of the Mexican Stand Off

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After The Thunderer (The Times newspaper) and its sister publications fell silent… an insider’s view to a piece of history…

What was supposed to be a short, sharp shock of suspension of publications became a painfully drawn out intransigent battle on both sides. Supported by strong unions and able to find work elsewhere, it became obvious the print workers would be able to hold out as long as was necessary. Allegedly collecting pay from more than one employer (in some cases up to to three) for each shift was, after all, one of the customs and practices that was crippling Fleet Street at the time…

Flat out to get staff jobs

We sales trainers, as management, were okay. The staff in our department on the other hand weren’t: unlike the print side they just had the one job and they were about to be summarily out on their ears. There were 35 of them and we had to help find them alternative work and quickly.

This was time to hit the phones with more determination than ever and those of our advertisers who could help did: Recruitment agencies bent over backwards to take them on themselves or place our people, and others of our advertisers would employ them if they could. The rest of the national press also had a potential field day being able to pick from the best of a bunch of highly trained sales people, though initially many of our lot didn’t want to work for another newspaper.

5Ss followed by displacement activity

The day came when everyone was more or less sorted and there were half a dozen of us rattling around in space designed for over 40. We weren’t the only ones feeling a bit like spare whatsits at a whojit, of course, and at that time we didn’t expect it to last long.

So we set about about doing ‘all the things we’d get round to if only we ever had the time…’ Imagine a home where you had a manic housewife/ husband who was determined to have everything ‘perfect’: That was us and it turned out we had a lot more time than we thought. We couldn’t drag that out for more than about three months. We went visiting other departments (not en masse, just gradually finding out more about how the various departments slotted together when everything was as it should be.

From a people point of view and working together more harmoniously in the future, that was a good exercise: I now understood about display run-of-paper and special reports advertising and their value to the paper; the guys in marketing got to see things from advertising’s point of view and vice versa; editorial and advertising middle management SPOKE to each other; so yes, some of it had its good points.

I must admit though, when I was told I was being seconded to The Aberdeen Press & Journal for two weeks I had a sense of humour failure My colleagues had gone to nearby Thomson Regional publications – daily commutes as I remember.

I had visions of the Scots being hugely insulted (quite rightly, as I thought) at the idea of some snotty-nosed trainer from The Times in London coming up to show them how to do their jobs: Nightmare! I was so mad I said I’d only do it if they flew me back for the middle weekend. My bosses were so taken back, they agreed . I toyed with the idea of pretending I’d met and fallen in love with someone when I returned to London and enrolled the help of one of my colleagues to flesh the story out – shows how bored we were by then!

We couldn’t actually DO anything other than turn up for work because we expected an announcement at any moment that we were to be back in business. You didn’t have the Internet so it wasn’t like you could be at work whilst taking a distance learning course even if you believed you’d have the time to complete it.

Nothing lasts forever

After 11 and a half months the presses were due to roll again: the paper, with its sister titles, was back and the print unions were hardly even bruised. We were overjoyed that we had a paper to get adverts in! Okay – it would be a rather slim paper to begin with, but we were about to be back!

A lot of what we’d been doing in the intervening time was about to be put to the test… Nearly a year is a long time for advertisers and ex employees: Would any of them want to come back?

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About Linda Mattacks
Doing what you love, your bit for humankind and the planet (if that turns you on) and making a decent, let alone great living don't necessarily come in the same package! With a background of sales training, marketing and market/marketing research spanning decades, for individuals and companies across the world from micros to corporations, Linda's finally found her niche... and some truly fabulous collaborators. Female employer, employee or entrepreneur, if you're not seeing the fruits of your potential value in the marketplace why not talk to Linda? Call +44(0)7879 628 367
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