Grunwick strike, 1976-1978
The Grunwick Strike of 1976-1978 was one of the most significant strikes of the 1970s. At its height it involved thousands of trade unionists and police in confrontations outside a small film processing factory in North London. It was also one of the first strikes to involve a group of Asian women, among them Jayaben Desai, who became a national figure.
Grunwick Processing Laboratories was a mail order film processing company, founded in 1965 by George Ward. On 20 August 1976 Devshi Budhi was sacked for working too slowly and three other young men then walked out in protest. Later that day Jayaben Desai was sacked for leaving early and her son Sunil walked out in support of her. The following Monday morning the six of them began picketing the gates and were eventually joined by 50 other workers. The strikers made contact with the trade union APEX and Jack Dromey, Secretary of Brent Trades Council. By 31 August the original strikers had joined APEX (which made the strike official) and had also been joined by other workers.
On 2 September 1976 the Grunwick directors sacked all the strikers and repeatedly rejected all approaches from APEX to discuss re-instatement. ACAS recommended that the company recognise APEX, but George Ward, with support from his local Tory MP John Gorst, and with legal backing from the National Association for Freedom, refused. The Strike Committee then issued a call for a mass picket, which continued until mid-July 1977.
During the dispute postal workers had, as usual, refused to cross the picket line but had allowed company representatives to collect mail from the sorting office. However, for a few days in November 1977 they refused to handle any incoming or outgoing company mail at all. The union only agreed to allow mail to be collected from the sorting office once the company agreed to ACAS talks
Finally the Labour government set up a Court of Inquiry under Lord Scarman. In return APEX wound down the picketing, whilst the postal union pressured its members to call off the embargo. The Scarman report was issued on 25 August 1977, condemning the mass picketing and unofficial postal blockade, but coming down in favour of Grunwick recognising a trade union. The report was cautiously welcomed by the strikers, but rejected by George Ward.
The momentum now moved away from the strikers. There were two further days of action in the autumn with thousands again turning up, only to face police violence and arrest. Attempts to cut off supplies to the firm proved impossible and union support waned as Christmas approached. In desperation four strikers, including Mrs Desai, sat outside the TUC for three days on hunger strike. It was to no avail and the strike was officially called off on 14 July 1978.
As part of its Grunwick collection the library holds a number of books about the strike, including Fort Grunwick by George Ward which was published in 1977 and is Ward’s own account of the strike and his response to the Scarman report. We also have Jack Dromey, Graham Taylor and John Callow’s account of the strike (Grunwick: the workers’ story) published in 2016.
Our archive material consists of a collection of APEX papers relating to the dispute, including correspondence between George Ward and the union and other bodies; APEX correspondence with other trade unions and other organisations regarding blacklisting Grunwick, other film processing companies, Grunwick suppliers and surveillance of Grunwick; letters of support and donations from other trade unions and their branches, trades councils, Labour Party branches, individuals and other organisations, with copies of APEX replies; correspondence regarding the mass picketing of Grunwick; transcripts of minutes of proceedings of the Court of Inquiry into the dispute; correspondence relating to legal action involving Mrs Jayaben Desai; information relating to strike pay and hardship payments which also includes information about News of the World allegations about misappropriation of funds; and miscellaneous papers including internal and branch correspondence, strike bulletins, external correspondence, information relating to membership, press cuttings.
In addition the strike is covered in many of the publications held in the library, such as the Morning Star, Socialist Worker and Spare Rib.
We also have a DVD history of the dispute produced by Brent Trades Council and 10 minutes of amateur footage of the demonstration.