The Justice for Cammell Laird 37 Campaign which has the backing of the GMB union, is holding a fringe meeting during the Labour Party conference.
During Merseyside’s 1984 unemployment crisis, workers at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead went on strike to defend their jobs and resist the Thatcher government’s privatisation plans. In a bold act of protest, they peacefully occupied a Naval Frigate and Gas Rig after management threatened to shift work to France. 37 strikers were sentenced to 30 days in high-security Walton Prison, and two apprentices were sacked for refusing to cross the picket line.
In the early 1980s, Cammell Laird’s workforce had been slashed to 2,000 as Thatcher’s government drove through deindustrialisation. The 1983 privatisation of British Shipbuilders was industrial vandalism – part of a wider assault on trade unions and manufacturing. The attack came amid the Miners’ Strike and Liverpool Council’s fight against cuts (see page 8-9).
When another 800 redundancies were announced in 1984, workers knew the yard faced closure. They responded with bold action: occupying an oil rig and blockading HMS Edinburgh. Their goal was simple, to defend jobs and livelihoods.
The occupation ended under threat of violent police assault, with water supplies cut off. 37 workers were arrested, jailed for a month, and punished for refusing to give up. The consequences for the workers were devastating: sacked, stripped of pensions and redundancy rights, and blacklisted.
Decades later, their convictions stand. That is why the campaign demands the Labour government reopen the case and deliver justice and compensation. At the same time, lawyers Paul Heron and barristers at Doughty Street Chambers are preparing to act because the Cammell Laird 37 remain victims of a grave miscarriage of justice.
- Hear from some of the 37 shipyard workers jailed in 1984 for fighting for their jobs and supporters of their campaign for justice on Tuesday 30 September at 6pm at the Casa Bar, 29 Hope St, Liverpool L1 9BP
