On this day in 1981

When the 240 women working at the VF Corporation factory in Greenock, owner of Lee Jeans, were told that their jobs were moving to Ireland, they locked the doors and staged a sit-in. It lasted for seven months.

Looking back at the strike, BBC Scotland reported in February 2011 that “the shop stewards’ convener, Helen Monaghan, went through to the factory floor and ordered a pre-arranged plan of action to be put into place. Immediately plastic chairs from the canteen were piled up against the factory door, preventing managers from gaining access. Mrs Monaghan, now 74, told me the workers were very angry after the offers they had made to management to help safeguard their jobs.”

Job sharing and shorter weeks

Those offers included job sharing and a shorter working week. Two days later, the Aberdeen Press and Journal reported, “with tables and chairs piled against the cafeteria doors and with family and friends ferrying a steady stream of supplies to them, the women are determined to continue the protest until they have successfully ‘defended’ their jobs.”

Nobody could have expected the sit-in to last as long as it did, and its spontaneous nature led to an impromptu dash to the nearest chip shop for 240 fish suppers.

Factory worker march

On 3 July, the Wishaw Press reported that factory workers marched through Motherwell to drum up support. “The 25 workers who are taking a week to march from Greenock to Edinburgh, were joined by members of Motherwell and Wishaw Trades’ Council and other trade unionists… They were welcomed in Motherwell by Provost John McCormack and had dinner with him before spending the night in the Daisy Park Centre.”

The sit-in came to an end on 28 August when a management buy-out saved the women’s jobs and they could head back to their machines, after a short delay.

Jobs secured

As reported in the Aberdeen Press and Journal the following day, “the decision to leave came at the end of a week which had seen a deal to buy the plant agreed and the women’s jobs secured for at least three years by an order from London cut-price jeans retailer, Mr Nigel Wright. Although the new firm, Inverwear, will not start production for about a month, sit-in leader Helen Monaghan said yesterday that the purpose of the occupation had been achieved.”

The factory had been sold for around £500,000, with government backing. Although some of the women had left during the sit in, around 140 had remained on site until the very end of the campaign.

 

...and on this day in 1881

Ecclefechan-born Carlyle was a versatile writer whose work encompassed satire, philosophy, maths, and history. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he became a maths teacher and had established himself as an essay writer by the time he and his wife moved to London in the 1830s.

Later that decade, he wrote a history of the French Revolution, which is said to have inspired Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, which is set partly in Paris during and in the run-up to that period.

Illness and death

Carlyle fell ill shortly before his death and, according to the Yorkshire Gazette of 12 February 1881, died at half past eight in the morning. “His medical advisor reported that at midnight his patient’s condition was very low indeed, and at the hour above-mentioned the venerable author passed away quietly.”

Although writing brought him fame during his lifetime, Carlyle’s burial at Ecclefechan, close to his birthplace, was a private affair, carried out in silence and without ceremony. He had died in London and his body was brought to Scotland by train. On 17 February 1881, the Witney Express wrote, “it was a dully day and the snow lay on the ground in the churchyard. The mourners made their way among the irregular mounds to the north-east corner of the enclosure, where the burying-place of the Carlyles, surrounded by iron railings, is situated. There a grave had been dug and in a few moments the body was lowered into its last resting place.”

Even so soon after his death, three biographies were already being prepared.

 

...and on this day in 1918

SS Tuscania was a luxury cruise liner that crossed the Atlantic between Glasgow and New York. During the First World War she was used to transport American soldiers to fight in Europe, and it was on one of these crossings, early in the war, that she was torpedoed by a German U-boat, and sunk.

She’d had almost 2200 soldiers and 400 crew aboard, of whom around 10% were killed when she was struck by the second of two torpedoes. The torpedoes had been fired by U-boat UB-77, which had stalked Tuscania for most of the day, and the one that found its target holed her below the waterline. She quickly started taking on water and sank in a matter of hours.

Many of those who survived were rescued by HMS Mosquito and HMS Pigeon, although some of those who made it into the lifeboats were not so lucky, as several of the smaller craft were smashed on nearby rocks and the occupants drowned.

Many of the dead washed up on Islay, where they were buried. After the war, most were exhumed and reburied in America, as had happened with the majority of the victims from the sinking of HMS Otranto just a few months later. There is now a memorial to the dead men on Islay.

Survivors’ treatment

Some of the survivors of the sinking were landed in Ireland, and questions were subsequently asked in the House of Commons about their treatment. Rumours had been circulating that they were being “inhospitably treated”, according to Hugh Law, MP for Donegal West.

However, Arthur Samuels, MP for Dublin University, assured My Law that “on the contrary, the survivors were, I understand, treated with every kindness and hospitality. In consequence of the hon. Member’s question, the Chief Secretary has made inquiries from the various district inspectors of Royal Irish Constabulary, who would know the facts as to this charge, and he is satisfied that it is entirely baseless. As one of the district inspectors expresses it, such an allegation would be an absolute falsehood and a gross libel on the people of the district”.