SURVIVING members of the largest group ever jailed for union activity have vowed to continue their fight for justice – despite growing disillusionment with Labour.

GMB general secretary Gary Smith, Ian Byrne MP and Chris Pearce of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign addressed the former Cammell Laird shipyard workers, including leading campaigner Eddie Marnell, at a Labour conference fringe event on Monday night.

This year marks 40 years since workers occupied the Birkenhead shipyard in Merseyside in a bid to save their jobs at the site. 

Lead striker Billy Albertina, 76, told of how the group – of which there were 37 – were starved of water, forcing them to abandon the yard.

They were then convicted of contempt of court, locked up in HMP Walton, fired, stripped of their pension and redundancy rights, and blacklisted.

The survivors of the group, dubbed the Cammell Laird 37, vowed to continue to call for a public inquiry and the release of key documents on the Thatcher government’s part in the imprisonments.

Asked if he was more hopeful for their campaign under Labour, Mr Albertina said: “For a long time I was wishing that a Labour government would… I still think that but some of the things I’m seeing from the Labour Party, it’s diminishing quite a bit.”