1.
GV Fleet Street at night
0.05

2.
MV Frontage of Daily Express with neon signs
0.10

3.
MV Ditto Daily Telegraph
0.13

4.
LV Men standing outside newspaper entrance
0.18

5.
MV Interior, idle printing machines (3 shots)
0.35

6.
GV Idle conveyor belt
0.38

7.
GTV Distribution department (deserted)
0.46

8.
MV Stacked finished papers
0.58

9.
MV Delivery vans standing idle (3 shots)
1.14

10.
LV Deserted loading bays
1.17

11.
MV Clocking-in passage with full card racks
1.26

12.
GV Workers leave down street
1.36



Initials OS/3301 OS/324



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Britain's national newspapers closed down on Saturday night (18th Sept) on the orders of the proprietors, and 5,000 skilled print workers were sacked, after only a few first-edition copies had been despatched to Scotland and Northern Ireland. The move followed union meetings held by members of the National Graphical Association (NGA) during the evening, disrupting production lines and causing the loss of approximately two million copies. Earlier in the week similar meetings during work time had caused the loss of a further two million copies, and after this, the employers....the Newspapers Publishers' Association....threatened the sackings and shutdown if the action was repeated.

It's the first time the national newspaper publishers have acted together in a shutdown move, and comes at a time when many papers are struggling against financial odds for survival. The publishers have warned that the shutdown is likely to continue indefinitely if a pay dispute....the reason for the union meetings...isn't satisfactorily concluded.