TRACTOR PLANT SHATTERED HER FATHER’S LIFE
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and decided it should go on behalf of the children of the workers at Caterpillar to the Queen as head of state.
“We also sent the petition to Malcolm Rifkind, the then Scottish Secretary, as it was he who had come to the plant four months earlier in September to highlight the £ 62million.”
Joanne, of Corstorphine, Edinburgh, and Denise – who now lives in Australia – were big news at the time. starring Keira Lucchesi and Kate Donnelly, Donnelly was premiered in Motherwell and ran at the Edinburgh Fringe.
A new housing development on the site of the former factory now boasts five Caterpillar-related street names.
And a permanent online archive has been created for future generations.
Convenor John, 71, of Hamilton, said: “The success of the 30-year commemoration has exceeded our expectations.
“We wanted to celebrate the 103-day struggle but the other objective was to leave a legacy. The sit-in at Caterpillar is important social history.
“We now have a permanent online archive available to all, which includes photos, audio from mass meetings and video footage from the time.
“It can be accessed via our Caterpillar Workers Legacy Group page on Facebook.”
Joanne, who plans to donate to the archive, added: “When my dad died in 2016, I inherited al l of his Caterpi l lar memorabil ia and newspaper cuttings.
“I am really keen that the struggle should never be forgotten.” The closure of Caterpillar was one of many devastating blows to Scotland’s industrial landscape in the 80s.
There were long-running and bitter disputes at steelworks, mines and car plants, and in shipbuilding and engineering. The communities who built their livelihoods around the industries were ultimately destroyed.
But the workers were not about to go down without a fight. Strikes took place at Linwood car plant in Renfrewshire, which finally shut in 1981 with 4800 jobs lost. Thousands more local workers, whose jobs relied on the plant, were also out of work.
There was an occupation at Plessey Capacitors in Bathgate, which ended in a takeover. The plant closed in 1982 and just 62 jobs were saved.
Strikers lost their fight at Leyland’s lorry factory in Bathgate, which shut in 1986 with the loss of 1800 jobs.
Ravenscraig steelworks, which was at the centre of the miners’ strike in 1984, closed in 1992 with 1200 jobs lost.
And many Clyde shipyards were either wound down or closed, including Scott Lithgow in Greenock in 1988.