A DAY’S work is over, the men from the shipyard head home ... except that this was no ordinary day for these workers.
They were leaving the Alexander Stephen and Sons yard in Linthouse in September 1957 after being told by management that their yard would shut in a week unless a strike involving shipwrights was settled.
The stoppage, which would affect 2,000 men, came as a result of a demarcation dispute between the shipwrights and the platers about their shares of prefabrication work.
Six days later the company said the row, which had started in June, had cost the company £2million, but then added it would not close the yard as the dispute was to be referred to the TUC disputes committee.
The issue was to flare again in each of the following two years as the trend towards prefabrication again hit shipwrights.
Sadly, the worldwide demand for ships was beginning to
fall and the late 1960s and early 70s were to bring new crises for Clyde shipbuilding. But that’s another story ...
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