Catalogue Number
NMLH.1992.889
Object Name
Badge
Title
UNITED...SOGAT...NGA...NUJ....AUEW
Place
Wapping, London
People
Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT); National Union of Journalists (NUJ); Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW); National Graphical Association (NGA)
Events
Wapping dispute
Description
Round red-orange badge with a yellow pattern of vertical and horizontal stripes. In the central strike is "UNITED". Like a crossword puzzle, the letters line up with the initials of trade unions - Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT); National Union of Journalists (NUJ); Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW); National Graphical Association (NGA).
The badge was produced in support of printworkers, who had gone on strike in response to the management of Rupert Murdoch's News International refusing to negotiate terms for the movement of the printworks of the newspapers to a new factory in Wapping with worse terms of employment, in 1986. Following the declaration of the strike, known as the Wapping dispute, striking members of staff were fired. Mass pickets and a boycott movement soon followed, but the 54-week strike was ultimately unsuccessful.
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