Decline
Woodruff Randolph's hand-picked Progressive Executive Council held the longest tenure as a unit in ITU history: from 1958-1967, its membership was Elmer Brown, president; John J. Pilch, first vice-president; Alexander Sandy Bevis, second vice-president (Canadian); Joseph P. Bailey, third vice-president (Mailer). Secretary-treasurer Don Hurd died in 1959, succeeded by William R. Cloud. After Elmer Brown's 1968 death, the ITU presidents were Pilch (1968–1973) and Bevis (1974–1978).
The Mergenthaler Linotype machine was used by newspaper printers from the 1880s to the 1970s. Technological progress again confronted the ITU in the post-war period. A number of new advances—including offset lithography, flexography, relief print, screen printing, rotogravure, and digital printing—greatly reduced the number of workers needed in the modern printshop and newspaper composing room.
In 1964, the ITU counted 121,858 members. But by 1980, the union had shed nearly a quarter of its membership due to technological advances. Toward the end of the ITU, the mailers outnumbered the printers. With the disappearance of linotype machines and the advent of paste makeup and computerized composition methods, the work in the composing rooms dropped. The mail rooms needed people to work on the inserting machines.
Read more about this topic: International Typographical Union
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