34 YEARS AGO..
The Courier and our friends at West Lothian local history library have teamed up to help readers take a trip down Memory Lane.
We will be featuring regular photos and details from West Lothian’s past in the paper and on The Courier’s website.
This week: ‘The Plessey Sit-in of 1982’.
Plessey began as The Telegraph Condenser Co. Ltd (TCC) which set up a factory in Bathgate in 1947, making electric condensers for all kinds of electrical and electronic machinery.
The market was a growing one and TCC grew with it, until by the mid 1960s, the factory employed some 2,000 people.
The workforce was predominantly female, with a small number of skilled men as engineers and technicians.
In the 1970s, there was a downturn in the industry, leading to repeated job losses throughout the decade. In 1981, Plessey announced that it was to close its Bathgate factory in March 1982, to be sent to Plessey’s factory in Italy.
On March 26, 1982 at 6.30am, the gates of Plessey were closed and the workers seized control of the factory. Managers arriving two hours later were turned away; the workforce had voted to reject redundancy and to fight for their jobs.
The joint shop stewards co-ordinators, Ina Scott and George Wilson, led the women, and organised them on-site to prevent the delivery of orders or the removal of the valuable machinery.
As the weeks went on, the demands of the sit-in on the women’s home life created strains, but most families were supportive. Some of the women had husbands or sons who worked at British Leyland, also under threat at that time, with the workers on strike.
The economic outlook in West Lothian was dire, with the jobless rate heading for 30 per cent. The Plessey women stressed that they could have taken their redundancy money and walked away, but they wanted to ‘make sure there’s something for youngsters to come into’.
The management had claimed that the condensers made in Bathgate were no longer in demand, but the discovery that the firm’s order books were bulging fuelled the women’s anger and encouraged them to keep on with their sit-in. The other important factor was the strong practical and financial support from the local community and the wider trade union movement.
Morale was high and support from the community was tremendous. A march and rally in Bathgate in support of the sit-in drew about 2,000.
Even a High Court interdict forbidding them to enter the factory, and dismissal notices from Plessey, did not daunt them. The women took on the full might of the law, and won: the interdict was lifted – and Plessey was ordered to pay the legal costs.
When Plessey announced that they were negotiating with a possible buyer, Arcotronics, the Bathgate workers were at first opposed, but were persuaded that 80 jobs with Arcotronics was better than no jobs at all, and that this was the best they could hope for.
After eight weeks the sit-in came to an end. Arcotronics took over but closed the factory just three years later.
Looking back, most of the women felt that the sit-in had been worth it: it brought people together, it gave them confidence in what they could achieve, and provided a great sense of camaraderie and solidarity.