Badge - GCHQ trade unionists sacked!
Object
Badge
Production date
1984
Object number
2024.363
Physical Description
Circular badge, white background with red and white text and black detail.
Object history
In January 1984 the Conservative government banned trade unions at the Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham on the basis of national security. 14 workers were dismissed after refusing to resign their union membership. The resulting GCHQ trade union campaign continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s until the newly elected Labour government restored union rights to GCHQ staff in 1997. This badge belonged to Hackney based civil servants and union activists Mary Pimm and Nik Wood.
Personal experiences
Experience shared by Nik Wood, a Hackney based civil servant and union activist:
If you work for GCHQ in 1984 they said you may not belong to any Trade union. It’s this sort of complicated thing that somehow you can't be patriotic and defend your country if you are in your Trade Union and in dispute with your employer. Somehow this makes you unpatriotic and a threat to the country. Which is what you might reasonably call rubbish.
It was a real worry that, I mean, all these frightfully leftwing people who would say "Well, these people are spying on our friends in Russia." But there wasn’t a serious problem with that, was there?
Associated Person
Material
Metal
Plastic
Dimension
Circumference: 38mm
On display?
No
Inscription
GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters]
TRADE UNIONISTS
SACKED!
SUPPORT
THEM
TRADE UNIONISTS
SACKED!
SUPPORT
THEM