Bosses broke t break the spir fight remains
POLICE in hi-vis vests hold back strikers screaming “scab” as busloads of workers roll through a picketline.
The furious female faces in the crowd show this is no scene from the miners’ strike.
This is Dundee in January 1993 as sacked workers fought for their jobs at the city’s Timex factory.
Twenty years on, the wounds from the dispute still run deep in the city. But there’s pride, too, in the way the workers stood up for what they believed in.
Former Dundee MP John McAllion still maintains that Timex backed the workforce into a corner.
And he told of the bitterness when anti-union managing director Peter Hall bussed local unemployed people across the lines to keep production going.
McAllion said: “Timex wanted away from Dundee, simply because they could make money by moving production elsewhere.
“They ruthlessly recruited from local job centres to try to break the strike but didn’t count on the spirit of the workers – especially the women, who dominated the picket lines.”
The 65-year-old, who still regularly meets up with former employees, explained how the walkout liberated female workers in particular.
He added: “The women embraced the trade union movement very quickly and brought a very different attitude to the protests. Most of them weren’t active in politics but quickly grew into it.
“A group even organised a bus and travelled to France to picket Timex factories out there. They were fighting for their families and their futures. They were astonishing.”
Sandra Walker, who was a mother in her mid-40s and an assembly line worker at the time, explained that the strike liberated female workers.
She said: “There were women that were wee tiny creatures and all of a sudden they were unrecognisable.
“They were fighting for their livelihood. The majority were like me. We had worked there since we were young lassies.”
But she admitted she could never forgive the scabs who crossed the picketline.
She added: “To this day there’s a couple of scabs, when I see them, I spit on the ground. It’s stupid. At almost 68 years old, I still feel like that.”
With 5000 workers across three sites, Timex was the biggest employer in Dundee in the 1970s.
Generations of the same families worked for the company – in many cases, husbands worked dayshifts and their wives covered backshifts.
Charities, sports teams and social clubs were supported by the firm.
So when Timex shifted their focus from watches to subcontracting computer circuit board work and orders started to dry up, the whole community was affected. By 1992, just 450 people worked there.
The strike began on January 29, 1993, in protest at 110 planned lay-offs.
Timex responded by sacking all 343 strikers and hiring new workers on lower wages.
Pickets from across the UK joined the workforce to demonstrate against the company and the uncompromising stance of Hall – who, some suspect, was recruited to shut down the plant after 47 years.
The images of strife on the picketlines dominated evening news bulletins for months in 1993.
Observers often compare the mass demonstrations near the city’s Camperdown Park with the 1984 miners’ strike. But the facts don’t back up this often misused and lazy parallel – although 38 people were arrested, there were very few convictions, especially for violence.
George Mason was a laid-off striker who now works as a security officer at Dundee University.
The 68-year-old presented the university archives with his collection of memorabilia from the strike – badges, banners, press- cuttings, paintings and photographs. He sa “I’ve always believed what happen at Timex will inspire other generatio – they’ll never kill ideas.
“Many of the issues we fought f back then, such as a fair wage f workers and proper pension provisio are still relevant today. Some of t picket line events were a bit hairy, b some were also joyful.
“My kids were there most days