The Battle of Wapping begins – archive, January 1986

On 24 January 1986, nearly 6,000 newspaper workers at Rupert Murdoch’s News International went on strike over plans to move print operations from Fleet Street to east London

In the mid-1980s, most British newspapers were still produced using hot metal​. Rupert Murdoch, chair of News International, publish​er of The Sun, News of the World, The Times and Sunday Times, was determined to free himself from Fleet Street’s powerful print unions and traditional printing methods​. During 1985 he equipped ​a new plant at Wapping in east London, where new technology would allow journalists ​t​o input copy directly on screen​.

Following the collapse of talks about working conditions, a strike was declared, striking workers were sacked ​and overnight Murdoch moved the four titles to Wapping, employing the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union union to staff the new plant. The first copies rolled off the presses​ on ​25 January ​1986. Print unions and supporters picketed the entrance to the plant, with The Battle of Wapping – one of the most bitter and violent disputes in British industrial history – continuing for 13 months.