Typecast
Sir: This week's press article, under the signature of Robert Ashley, came as a welcome relief following last week's from "Walter Plinge" which embarked on flights of fancy and nightmare excursions far removed from your previous eminently sensible and realistic, as well as delightfully entertaining, articles by Bill Grundy. As for the '£10,000-a-year' Linotype operators who last week's contributor claimed were the chief culprits responsible for the troubles in the newspaper industry, 1 notice they don't even get a mention this week. Instead, and in my openion rightly, stress is laid on the wildly extravagant claims by the NUJ, which are far more likely to paralyse , the newspapers.
I have worked for over fifty years on daily and national newspapers and have yet to meet one of these 10,000-a-year chaps. Having been in the presence of Linotype operators for most of this time, I find "Walter Plinge" guilty not of slight exaggeration but of gross mis-statements. The highest figure, on piece work, I have seen of operators on the Financial Times, Telegraph arid other papers is at most £7,000, and in Manchester it is considerably less. And in the provinces, I need hardly say, considerably less than Manchester.
Unlike their NUJ colleagues, members of the NGA to which Linotype operators belong, do not have the means to supplement their incomes from outside sources, as do many journalists.
Harold S. Priestley 16 Alexandra Drive, Manchester
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