Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
From GCHQ to minimum service levels, union power can win
PCS leader FRAN HEATHCOTE draws the parallels between a major trade union rights battle 40 years ago and the fight we have ahead of us today
GCHQ union members, who where sacked for their union membership, pictured at the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union Conference at Blackpool's Winter Gardens, may 15, 1997. Left to right: Alan Rowland, Mike Grindley, Jack Hart and Clive Lloyd

TODAY thousands of trade unionists from across the movement will come together in Cheltenham to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the longest trade union disputes in British history.

Fourteen civil servants working in GCHQ were sacked simply for being a member of a union. What followed was a 13-year campaign that ended in victory, when the ban was finally lifted. Forty years on, our movement once again faces an existential threat, with minimum service levels undermining the right to strike. 

Back in 1984, Margaret Thatcher enforced a ban on trade union membership. Over 100 workers refused to give up this basic right and by 1988, there were 14 workers still holding out. Their defiance cost them their jobs and they were sacked. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
New Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband speaking to the media outside number 10 Downing Street, London, July 20, 2026
Workers' Rights / 22 July 2026
22 July 2026
Workers' Rights / 12 July 2026
12 July 2026
Stop the War demo
Features / 10 June 2026
10 June 2026

PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE explains why opposing war is inseparable from defending jobs, wages and public services – and why readers should come to the London Peace Conference on Saturday June 20

trade unionists calling for insourcing of their work. Credit to Daniel Shannon-Hughes
TUC LESE Regional AGM / 18 April 2026
18 April 2026

Outsourcing is at the heart of inequality. Only collective unity in the trade union movement can topple the Establishment’s obsession with it, says SAM GURNEY