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. 

In response to this brazen attack, several Civil Service unions, the predecessors to the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), campaigned against the GCHQ ban, inspired by a small group of sacked GCHQ staff. The late Mike Grindley was the spokesperson for the campaign and they organised large rallies in Cheltenham every January, went on roadshows, attended trade union conferences across the country, and set up a regular campaign journal called Warning Signal.

The attack was an attack on all trade unionists and their fundamental rights and so the trade union movement threw its full weight behind their campaign. Ahead of the March 1 deadline for resigning their union membership or facing the sack, the TUC called a day of action. And when the government eventually dismissed the trade unionists at GCHQ, civil servants throughout the country took industrial action and the ban was finally lifted in 1997. I’m immensely proud that the GCHQ branch remains an important part of PCS to this day.

Our victory at GCHQ is one which we should all be proud of but the fight for justice for all of the working class goes on and four decades on, here we are again: a rotten Tory government taking a sledgehammer to our members’ rights. It’s an unprecedented assault and we’ve got to fight it with everything we’ve got.

Despite what government ministers may say, the minimum service levels legislation has nothing to do with preventing disruption or protecting the services that the public relies on. Just one look at our crumbling schools, overstretched NHS and broken rail system puts paid to any notion that this government has the best interests of the public at heart. This legislation is about one thing and one thing only: restricting the right to strike and our members’ ability to fight back against low pay and bad bosses.

The government repeatedly tells the public that such measures are necessary to prevent disruption. But they completely fail to recognise the root cause of the strike action our members take, which causes the disruption in the first place. If they were serious about heading off strike action, they could start by immediately giving our members a fair pay rise.

Members of PCS working in the Border Force are preparing themselves for what will be some of the most severe restrictions of the lot. Border Force strikes are now required to have no impact on strike days, which for all intents and purposes is an outright ban on strike action. And the government has said itself that three in four Border Force workers will be prevented from going on strike. 

Let’s not forget that these are the same workers lauded as heroes during the pandemic and clapped by the prime minister on the doorstep of No 10. The reward for their sacrifice during a time of national crisis was an insulting pay rise equivalent to just £4 per week. What this all shows is that the Tory game plan is clear: pay workers poverty wages and make it illegal for them to do anything about it. It’s simply grotesque.

Looking ahead, our movement needs to work together to fight back against this unprecedented attack. That means sharing ideas and using innovative tactics. It was reassuring to see that in its first major test, the government’s legislation failed miserably when in response to the train drivers’ union Aslef adding five extra strike days, LNER withdrew plans to impose minimum service levels.

Just as we showed at GCHQ all those years ago, our strength is in our collective. That is why trade unionists from all across Britain will march together today in Cheltenham on the anniversary of the trade union ban at GCHQ.

But we will not only demonstrate to protect the right to strike. We will also pay homage to the annual marches and rallies that took place every January in Cheltenham as part of the inspirational campaign that was led by ordinary trade unionists against the union ban. As we prepare for this massive mobilisation in Cheltenham, we must remind ourselves that our movement has won many battles before — and that we can, and will, win many more again. 

If the campaign to overturn the union ban at GCHQ teaches us anything, it is that a united trade union movement can be a powerful force for change.

Fran Heathcote is general secretary of PCS.