'We don't only build ships on the Clyde, we build men'

Even 40 years on, the mere mention of the initials of the company involved - UCS - are enough to recall memories of one of the key events of the 1970s.

The dispute centred on the future of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders.

The combine had been put together in the late 1960s when the Labour Government, trying to address the decline in shipbuilding orders, asked Reay Geddes to look into reorganisation of the industry.

His report recommended five yards on the Upper Clyde be merged.

The five were Fairfield's, Stephen's, Connell's, Yarrow and John Brown. Yarrow and Connell's were the only ones that were making a profit.

Yarrow joined on the basis of 51% owned by the consortium and 49% owned by Yarrow & Co.

But by June 1971, Yarrow's had been allowed to return to independent work - and a liquidator was appointed in relation to the rest of the business.

The Tories, who had won power in 1970 under leader Ted Heath, were strongly disinclined to dig deeper into the public purse to fund what they saw as a lame duck.

But the men on the Clyde were equally strongly disinclined to accept the sentence of death that had been passed on the yards and that 8500 jobs would disappear.

Their solution was not to down tools and go on strike but, instead, to stage a work-in to demonstrate that the yards were still viable.

Jimmy Reid, one of the shop stewards who would become famous through the work-in, made the workers' feelings clear when he said the Upper Clyde "was being sacrificed on the altar of political dogma".

In a speech that helped make his name, he told the workers: "This is the first campaign of its kind in trade unionism.

"We are not going on strike. We are not even having a sit-in. We are taking over the yards because we refuse to accept that faceless men can take these decisions.

"We are responsible people and will conduct ourselves with dignity and discipline.

"There will be no hooliganism. There will be no vandalism. There will be no bevvying, because the world is watching us.

"We are not wildcats. We want to work ... we don't only build ships on the Clyde, we build men. They have taken on the wrong people, and we will fight."

The work-in attracted huge support and sympathy from across Scotland. A march designed to publicise the men's stance attracted an estimated 80,000 people.

Twenty years later, one of the shop stewards, Jimmy Airlie, recalled: "It was an atmosphere I never experienced. It was an expression of the Scottish people, a sense that the decline of Scotland's manufacturing base and its industrial heritage must stop.

"There was a feeling the Scottish people were once again on the move to claim what was theirs."

The work-in famously attracted the support of such celebrities as former Beatle John Lennon, whon sent a cheque for between £5000 and £10,000 to the men, and Billy Connolly, a former shipyard worker beginning to make a name for himself in showbiz.

Many Scottish business people also voiced their backing. In the end, the Tory Government caved in and performed a spectacular U-turn. The yards and the jobs were all saved.

Memories of the UCS work-in have been stirred by the publication of A Few Memories, a volume of memoirs by Sir Eric Yarrow, who at the time was chairman of the Yarrow yard.

Now 93, and living in Kilmacolm, renfrewshire, Sir Eric says he knew from the start that the UCS project would not succeed.

"Not a happy company," he says now, 45 years after UCS was put together by Tony Benn, Labour's then technology minister. "I didn't think it would work.

"They were inheriting a lot of loss-making contracts, the shipyards that got caught up in inflation and so on. Inflation was particularly high. UCS took over these loss-making contracts, so they were bound to make a loss.

"If Yarrow had not joined the group, it is possible the Admiralty or Ministry Of Defence might not have placed any more orders with us, and naval ships were our practice.

"So we really had no option but to join. We were very much a public company - I owned about 1.5% - and our shareholders highly resented UCS. The arrangement was not very satisfactory."

After two years of "very difficult" operations, Benn urged Sir Eric to consider taking over as UCS chairman.

He abandoned a holiday in Portugal after just one day to meet Mr Benn and half-a-dozen of the minister's advisers in the Commons.

Sir Eric declined the job , saying he did not believe UCS had a future. Benn asked him to sleep on his decision, but at 8am the next day Sir Eric repeated his view. Benn, he writes, "was anything but gracious and understanding" in the phone call.

The UCS yards that were saved carried on, but other factors meant their long-term future was not guaranteed.

Now, more than 40 years later, there are two shipayrds left in Glasgow - at Scotstoun and Govan. They employ more than 3000 workers - more than 5000 fewer than at the time of the sit-in.

But in an interview with the Evening Times in 2001, however, Jimmy Reid said he was convinced the men took the right action at the right time.

"We were victorious and we saved thousands of jobs, guaranteeing years and years of employment in the yards and spin-offs in other industries," he declared.

"There were benefits for thousands of families."

l A Few Memories by Sir Eric Yarrow is published by Impress.