| Description | Records relating to the negotation of agreements between the Observer chapel of the NUJ and the newspaper's management. This file is chiefly made up of legacy records from Tristram Jones' office, with some later correspondence of Roger Harrison.
Early correspondence is only with national NUJ branch representatives. After 1968 the majority is with Observer chapel representatives. The files contains copies (non-original) of the following agreements for the following years:
Observer Saturday agreement: 1972-3 (signed copy).
Observer House agreement:1970-71 (unsigned draft); 1972-3 (unsigned drafts and signed copy); 1974-5 (unsigned draft).
Includes the fifth and seventh Observer NUJ chapel bulletins (16 August 1972 & 7 Nov 1972) and correspondence and memos relating to the agreements and on the following subjects: unqualified journalists, including the employment of writers also engaged in work other than journalism (1957-64); redundancy (1964-67); NUJ involvement in a dispute between the NPA and SLADE relating to process engraving (1968); the inauguration of the Observer NUJ chapel (1968); NUJ involvement in a SOGAT dispute (Jan 1969); the Department of Employment and Productivity (1969); journalists' pay agreement (1969); the makeup of the Observer NUJ chapel (1969); the use of working time & space for meetings (1972-3); the bomb warning system in the Observer building (1973); secretarial turnover (1973); journalists' objections to a leader relating to the miners' stirkes (1974); a copy letter from Alastair Hethington of The Guardian to Astor relating to editors' union membership; the revised sports concordat, relating to unqualified journalists reporting on sport (1974).
Key correspondents include: Roger Harrison, Tristan Jones and KP Obank; Kenneth Morgan & WG McLean (NUJ branch secretaries); David Perman, Neal Asherson; Jeremy Bugler, Andrew Wilson and Ivan Yates (Fathers of the Observer Chapel). |