Grunwick Bravery and Betrayal

18 pages.

Card cover a little age-toned. Text clean and unmarked.

Less well remembered than the miners' strike of the early 1970s, the Grunwick (Brent, north London) strike demonstrated the difficulties the trade union and working-class movement faced in taking on the political and industrial forces emboldened by the Thatcher Government.

Grunwick was a film / photograph processing company whose workforce was mainly comprised of Afro-Carribean and East African Asian workers of immigrant descent. When 137 Grunwick workers walked out on 23 August 1973, demanding union recognition in order to improve working conditions described as Dickensian, they were sacked 8 days later. This strike for the right to organise and have union representation continued until late 1977 / early 1978, and involved a wide range of other trade unions in taking action to support the strikers, as well as garnering wider community and political support. This short account (a longer analysis appeared in book form) examines the many reasons for the ultimate failure of the strike and wider struggle.

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