'We're still fighting the Conservatives for our right to strike 40 years on'

25 January 2024 , 20:01

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Gareth Morris was among those whose rights were taken away in 1984 (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)

Exactly 40 years ago yesterday, Conservative Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe made an announcement.

Margaret Thatcher’s minister told the House of Commons that trade unions were to be banned at the Government Communications ­Headquarters in Cheltenham, “in the interests of national security”. “GCHQ staff are being informed of these measures this afternoon,” Sir Geoffrey said.

Listening to the radio inside GCHQ on January 25 1984, was Brian Johnson, a telecoms technician who had joined the intelligence agency straight from serving in the air force.

“I was the only one in the office who actually heard Geoffrey Howe make the statement,” Brian, now 90, tells me. “So, when we were told we couldn’t leave work without receiving a letter no one knew the contents of, I had an idea what was happening.”

Inside was the offer of £1,000 and the chance to keep his job, or to remain a union member and leave the job and service he loved. Members were ordered to leave their trade unions by March 1. “It all felt very unreal,” says Brian, who was one of 14 to be sacked – and over 100 who left their jobs – for refusing to give up his union rights. “I was lucky I had strong support at home. It led to the break-up of some people’s marriages.”

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Gareth at the time of the ban (Jonathan Buckmaster)

For 13 years, the GCHQ dispute was a cause celebre for the Labour ­movement, led by the Civil and Public Services Association – which later became PCS – and supported by the TUC. Until 1997 – when incoming Foreign Secretary Robin Cook reversed the decision as one of the very first acts of the Blair government. Eligible workers were reinstated, while others were re-awarded the full pensions they had lost in the intervening years.

“We always had faith that we would win,” Brian says. “That’s why we kept on fighting. Tony Blair, John Smith and Neil Kinnock all stuck to their word in supporting us, and ultimately in reversing the legislation.”

But 40 years on, there are painful parallels, as increasingly spiteful Tory anti-trade union legislation culminates in a new “Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act” – that could mean workers losing their jobs for taking industrial action in certain sectors. “In some ways the minimum service levels proposals of now are even more murderous than what we went through,” Brian says.

Picketing outside GCHQ in 1984 (Jonathan Buckmaster)

Labour’s Angela Rayner has pledged her party will bring forward legislation to improve workers’ rights within 100 days should it win the next election. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka says the GCHQ ban was part of Margaret Thatcher’s wider attack on the movement.

“The principled decision not to give up their trade union membership saw them pay a massive price,” he says. “Now, 40 years on, as we celebrate their courage and determination, a different Conservative government is attacking trade union rights – this time they’re introducing minimum service levels in a naked attack on our right to strike. Our message today is the same as it was in 1984 – we shall fight this injustice for however long it takes.”

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak says that “a generation later, the heroic fighting spirit of the GCHQ workers” is needed again. “This time the Tories have gone even further,” he says. “Their draconian Strikes Act could take away the right to strike of one in five workers. The message from the union ­movement is loud and clear – we won’t let this happen.

“We will name and shame any employer that uses this legislation. And the full force of the entire ­movement will be behind any worker disciplined or sacked for exercising their democratic right to strike.” Also at work inside GCHQ that day in 1984 was Gareth Morris, who had joined straight from school in 1978 and been promoted through the ranks.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak says the fighting spirit of the GCHQ workers is needed again (PA)

“At the time of the 1984 ban, I was working in a sensitive area,” Gareth, now 64, says. “I can’t tell you what I was doing. When we all got the envelope with the news our rights were being taken away, it was really hard to take in. People were very shocked and upset. They implied we were unpatriotic – saying that being a trade union member was incompatible with national security. It was a slur on our integrity. We knew we had to stand up for what we believed in. Because if the Government could get away with this then other public sector workers could face similar restrictions.”

Thatcher and Howe (Hulton Archive)

GCHQ staff were given just five weeks to make up their minds.

“A lot of people with families and mortgages signed under duress,” he says. “And 150 chose not to sign. There were months of appeals and court cases during which those fighting on were denied promotion and other benefits. Many retired, left or were sacked. I was sacked in 1989, when I’d just got a mortgage and was due to get married, so it was good my family and my wife supported me so much. I ended up getting a job at the Bank of England – so much for being a threat to national security.”

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When Labour righted the wrong in 1997, only three former GCHQ members were eligible to return – Gareth among them. “I was 29 when I was sacked and 38 when I returned,” he says. “I was welcomed back with open arms.”

(Jonathan Buckmaster)

Brian Johnson at the GCHQ in the 1980s (Jonathan Buckmaster)

Brian had already reached retirement age when Labour overturned the ban. “But I went back into GCHQ for an hour with many others who were sacked or who left during that time,” he says. “It was very emotional.”

Every January for 13 years, trade unionists marched in Cheltenham in support of the sacked GCHQ workers. And tomorrow, they will march once again, to commemorate the 40th ­anniversary of the ban and support those whose union rights are once again under attack from a ­Conservative government. Nowak says marchers will remember the moment working people called out Margaret Thatcher’s attack on workers’ rights – and won. “Together,” he says, “we will win again.”

Ros Wynne Jones