In the 1950s and 1960s, Local 191, which was, at the time, part of the International Typographical Union (ITU), saw the printing industry in Winnipeg, and across Canada, experience yet again, technological change -- Photocomposition, Negative Imposition, and the Offset Presswork. These were to make obsolete many of the traditional skills of the compositor and pressman, and introduce the new jobs of paste-up artist, camera operator, and negative stripper.
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"It should be noted that printing technology had not been stagnant through the century of ITU expansion. The typesetting operations had first seen mechanization in the late nineteenth century. The basic principle of the machines then introduced was the combination of the typewriter concept with the hot-metal production of the foundry. Instead of the typesetter hand-selecting a character from a case of type, he simply depressed a key on a keyboard, which in turn mechanically directed a corresponding selection of a brass mould, or "matrix" from the machine magazine. Thus the compositor no longer set up the actual type, but, in fact, mechanically set up a line of matrices. And the machine automatically completed the line through justifying. The line of matrices then moved, again automatically, to another part of the machine where molten type metal flowed into the mould. From this mould the printed page was drawn. Hot metal machine production had an immediate potential for a four-fold increase in output over handsetting ... Following these initial innovations, the technology, although not totally dormant, did not fundamentally alter either the nature of the printers' work or the organization of the shop until the end of the Second World War. Much of the inventive effort went toward improvement in the original machines, which increased productivity still further. There were some very promising inventions that had little immediate impact, but which would have a profound effect later on. These included the teletypesetter and photographic reproduction. More worrisome, from the point of the printers' jobs and skills, was the compatibility of phototypesetters with the use of perforated tape, and then with computers. Early in 1963 the American press reported that some newspapers were using digital computers for typesetting. This news had an electrifying impact on those who understood its implications. And in Toronto, those implications were not long in coming to dominate the struggle between printers and employers in their negotiations ... ... One could say that it was inevitable that printing employers would take up the recesses since they promised so many production and organizational benefits. But, whether their introduction would be accompanied by accommodations to labour's interest was far from assured. ... The stakes were very high in the battle over control of technology. Jurisdiction over composing-room equipment had long since been won by the ITU, and the parent organization saw no reason to change from its established historical approach with the latest machines." article - Printers, Technology and Unionism - Sally Zerker (Work in the Canadian Context, 1986 - p.127) |
What
did the changes mean to the publication worker?
What is Photocomposition? Instead of using molten
lead in a linotype to make lines of metal type -- composing machines would allow
the operator to type each letter into a photocompositor machine, which would
be exposed onto light sensitive paper. This paper would be stored in a canister
within the machine. The canister would then be physically taken to an automatic
developing machine, which would develop the light sensitive paper.
What is Paste-up and Negative Imposition? There
had been no equivalent job in the publication industry up until this time --
The paper would be pasted into columns on a page, and the page photographed
with a process camera. The negative that was produced would then be stripped
into flats, and the negatives of the pictures on the page would be taped into
the page. A plate would then be made from the negative, which would be placed
on the press.
What is Offset Presswork? Instead of the pressman
placing the lines of metal type on the press, and making an impression on the
paper with the uplifted type -- The plates would be placed on a drum, and involves
drums with the plate images being impressed onto the paper. A further development,
during the latter part of this period, was a series of drums which could run
up to two colours of ink.
The International Typographical Union (ITU) had, in previous tech change situations in the 20s and 30s, had some measure of control locally over the retraining of publication workers to meet the new skill demands of the industry. The union's control over the workplace saw complete defeat in the 1950s. In fact, the ITU lost a bitter strike over the issue of control over technological change and jurisdiction in Toronto during this period.
According
to the ITU's Bureau of Education's Lessons in Printing (1973) p. 355:
"The postwar years brought much new machinery and many new processes in
the printing industry, some of these used for strikebreaking purposes or to
reduce personnel needs. Other crafts claimed some of the new work ... The convention
of 1953 restated the century-old jurisdiction of ITU, over any method or process
which substitutes for, or replaces, traditional composing room or mailing room
work, regardless of the materials or equipment used. Claiming jurisdiction was
no protection. There was no point in demanding jobs we were not trained to cover,
especially the jobs already taken by those who had acquired the skills needed.
.. The convention in 1954 resolved: That the activities of joint apprentice
committees be expanded to provide for the development of skills of journeymen
and apprentices alike, enabling the acquired the degree of proficiency necessary
to perform all composing room and mailing room work and the preparation therefor.
"Early in 1956 the ITU Training Center was established at the Indianapolis headquarters. .. The first course at the Center began in March 1956 and was attended by 12 students from 12 different locals."
By the late 60s, 30 courses were offered by the Center and thousands of journeymen and apprentices had been trained. The union set up its own training schools, and offered Printer "tickets" which qualified them for the apprenticeship that led to journeyman status, and which provided for the upgrade of journeyman skills.
The experience of Local 191 during these years of adjustment followed the general trends.The industry, in Winnipeg, however, was somewhat slower to make the changeover -- with the smaller shops lagging behind national/international trends.
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