Grunwick dispute

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The Grunwick dispute over trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in North London was controversial in the late 1970s.

The dispute began in the summer of 1976 when a part of the largely female and Asian workforce was unhappy about wages and work conditions. The Anglo-Indian employer was George Ward, who did not believe the workers had legitimate grievances. About a third of the worker force subsequently went on strike and joined the APEX union and were then sacked by Ward, who did not want to recognise the union. The staff were led by Mrs Jayaben Desai, whose membership, along with others', was later suspended following a hunger strike outside TUC headquarters in November 1977.

Conciliation attempts were suggested to Ward by ACAS but he rejected this offer and by October 1976 the TUC was calling for 'sympathetic action' by other unions. The Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) refused to deliver Grunwick's mail, so Ward sought the help of the National Association For Freedom (NAFF). Grunwick processed photographic film and needed to post the results to their customers. Under the Post Office Act 1953 it was illegal for Post Office workers to 'wilfully delay' the deliverance of mail, so NAFF sued the union. The UPW agreed to deliver Grunwick's mail on the condition that ACAS would be able to consult the Grunwick workers, which Ward at first did not agree with but complied with eventually. ACAS could therefore only ballot the strikers and a small proportion of those still at work (who had received a pay rise). ACAS recommended on this evidence that there should be recognition of APEX but Grunwick rebutted this by publishing an internal opinion poll that showed that those working were hostile to union recognition, and challenged ACAS in the courts.

Three Labour Government Ministers on the Right of the party, Shirley Williams, Denis Howell and Fred Mulley, went onto the picket line at Grunwick in May 1977. Williams lost her seat at the 1979 general election and Kingsley Amis commented that 'I bet she rued the day she turned up on the Grunwick picket line'.

The dispute turned violent for a few weeks in June and July 1977 when a mass picket formed with students, Socialist Workers Party members and trade unionists tried to stop workers from entering their workplace. On 22 June Arthur Scargill brought miners from Yorkshire, South Wales and Kent to join the mass pickets. Bloody scenes between the police and the pickets were broadcast on television. The Labour Government decided to commission an enquiry under Lord Scarman and the pickets were called off in mid-July to wait for the result of the enquiry. APEX announced it would abide by the outcome of the enquiry but Ward did not, saying he would only submit to the normal courts.

During the mass pickets the local Cricklewood branch of the UPW voted to again stop delivering Grunwick's mail. The staff were subsequently suspended, thus closing down the postal service in the region. The Attorney General refused to initiate any action against them and stopped anyone else from doing so. NAFF organised its own operation to deliver Grunwick's mail themselves (dubbed "Operation Pony Express"), though this was a token gesture. According to the BBC documentary Tory! Tory! Tory!, activists picked up the mail from Grunwick's took it to a farmhouse in Shropshire, stamped it and posted it in post boxes across the country.

The Scarman Report recommended the reinstatement of the strikers, said that the management had acted 'within the letter but outside the spirit of the law' and that union recognition could 'help the company as well as the employees'. Ward rejected the report, the strikers were not reinstated and the union was not recognised. A House of Lords ruling upheld Ward's right not to recognise a union. The strikers called off their action on 14 July 1978, nearly two years after it had begun.

In August 1977 Sir Keith Joseph, a prominent Conservative politician close to Margaret Thatcher, called the Grunwick dispute 'a make-or-break point for British democracy, the freedoms of ordinary men and women'. He disparaged the Labour Ministers who had appeared on the picket line: '"Moderates" behind whom Red Fascism spreads'. Joseph was seen as speaking beyond his remit, as the more moderate James Prior was the Shadow Employment Secretary; some Conservative wets called Joseph 'off his head' and Thatcher said his comments were 'too sharp'.

[edit] Books

Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor, Grunwick: The Workers' Story (Lawrence & Wishart, 1978).
Tom Durkin, Grunwick: Bravery and Betrayal (Brent Trades Council, 1978).
Joe Rogaly, Grunwick (Penguin, 1977).
George Ward, Fort Grunwick (MT Smith, 1977).