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GCHQ 40: the ban on trade unions in 1984
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The 13th Anniversary GCHQ March moves through Cheltenham, January 1997, to commemorate when trades unions fought against the government's decision in 1984 to band trades union membership at the communications and eavesdropping centre
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IN 1984 no-one had heard of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the government’s then-secret intelligence-gathering centre — let alone that the staff were represented by trade unions.
All that changed on January 25 1984, when Margaret Thatcher’s government announced its decision to impose a total ban on trade union membership at GCHQ.
The decision came without warning or consultation, and it provoked a sustained campaign unparalleled in modern labour history. It ended in 1997 when, in one of its first decisions, the Labour government overturned the ban.
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