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UK: Union ban lifted at GCHQ

01 May 1997

A 13-year campaign by the labour movement and civil rights groups ended in May when the Labour government reversed the ban on independent trade union membership at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. GCHQ is the intelligence gathering centre which monitors radio transmissions from around the world as a part of the Anglo-American UKUSA Agreement.

The ban was imposed by the Thatcher administration in 1984 after the US National Security Agency expressed concern about industrial action. In response to the American complaints, Sir Brian Tovey, head of GCHQ between 1978 and 1983, requested the ban which was introduced by Defence Secretary, John Nott. Independent trade unions were replaced by a toothless, management approved, Staff Federation and fourteen workers, who refused to give up their right to trade union membership, were summarily dismissed. Obviously, the Federation could not be recognised as a legitimate trade union by the official Certification Officer.

Members of the Federation are now expected to merge with the Public Services Tax and Commerce Union (PTC). The fourteen employees dismissed by the Thatcher government, after refusing to give up union membership for a ?1000 payoff, can now reapply for their jobs, although several of them have passed retirement age.

However, the battle is not yet over and negotiations between the government and the PTC will need to ensure that there are no "no-strike" arrangements to undermine the credibility of the new trade union. Finally, there is the still unresolved question of compensation for the 14 sacked trade men, some of whom have been unemployed for more than a decade.

Independent 16.5.97.