User:Chrisplume

In 1983 Associated Newspapers, owners of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, launched a trainee scheme in association with the Sogat '82 Trades Union. Under this scheme the newspaper employed 17 trainees, to work at its Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday operation based in Fleet Street.

The scheme was revolutionary in that trainees had never previously been recruited directly in to the press rooms of Fleet Street. Standard practice had always been to take experienced personnel from the pool of labour provided by the Trades Unions. The scheme was instigated by senior officers of the Daily Mail Sogat '82 Machine Chapel, notably John Bird, the FOC (father of the chapel) at the time, Davy Jones the Deputy FOC, and Barry Woodgate. Senior management at Associated Newspapers welcomed the scheme as it was good PR for the company at a time when levels of unemployment were high.

The scheme ran for 5 years, during which time the trainees learned all of the skills that were necessary to run the hugh presses which occupied three floors of the building in which they were situated. Union demarcation was very much the order of the day, and the chapel in which the trainees worked was restricted to 'printers assistant' duties. The presses were operated by a skilled 'machine minder' who would be a member of the NGA Trades Union. The rest of the crew operating the press were the 'semi-skilled' Sogat '82 members.

As part of their training, the operatives were required to attend day release at the London College of Print at the Elephant and Castle. Here they worked toward a City & Guilds qualification. Later training in touch typing was provided at the College's Clerkenwell site at Back Hill.

The intention when the scheme was launched, was that the 17 trainees would remain with the company once the training was completed. However, during that five year period the UK saw hugh industrial unrest, and Margaret Thatcher's attempts to undermine the power held by the Trades Unions. The period saw Eddie Shah launch the first non-union national newspaper, 'Today', the miners dispute, and eventually the sacking of 6,000 print workers by Rupert Murdoch. The national newspapers argued that they needed to relocate from Fleet Street to London's docklands, which were being rejuvenated. Associated Newspapers decided to relocate the production of the Daily Mail and the Mail On Sunday to Surrey Quays. This involved redundancies and the 16 remaining trainees were made redundant between 1989 and 1990.