Notable Obituaries.

conny said:
Shipbuilders strike. He worked at Cammel Laird in Birkenhead and was good mates with a guy known as Red Robbo. Both of them were high up in the union hierarchy and thought they could control everyone including the bosses. When the shipbuilders were denied a larger than average pay rise because they were losing contracts the union called them out on strike. Neither side would back down and it had a similar effect on peoples relationships as the miners strikes did only on a smaller local scale. Our union at the time, the EETPU, demanded we paid a weekly contribution of £3 to the strike fund with the promise we would get it back when the strike was over. We never got it back and the vast majority of workers were eventually made redundant. The ship yard was bought out by a consortium but struggled for years to regain ground by building wind turbine structures. I think they are still going but not on the scale they used to be. In the meantime Tomlinson and the other union heads were still getting full pay while their members were struggling to put a loaf of bread on the table. The strike decimated a once close knit community and it never recovered.
Click to expand...
Red Robbo was at BL & Tomlinson was a plasterer, did they ever work at Cammels?
 
Don't know if he ever did any work but Tomlinson was at Cammel Lairds. They didn't work together as far as I know but they were very good friends.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top