When Is The Time Right?
When Is The Time Right?
Tue 7th Jun 2011
St. Antony's Centre recently received a donation for the Heritage Centre from Nigel Astell. Nigel kindly donated a framed copy of a poem entitled 'When is the time right?' which reflects his time at GEC and the worker's strikes of 1985. Nigel is part of a Stockport based poetry group named 'Write Out Loud' and wrote this poem to reflect upon the GEC workers strikes of 1985.
During his visit to the Centre, Nigel also allowed us to copy some of his own personal artefacts from his time working at GEC as he had collected a folder of memorbilia ranging from personal clocking in and out cards, to items thrown out by the company. This interesting collection of items tells the story of Nigel's time at GEC.
In October 1978, Nigel began working at GEC in Trafford Park as a Capstain Operator. Based in the auto department, he worked on a small lathe in the machine shop. Formally Metropolitan Vickers, the General Electric Company had purchased the site in 1967 however, sadly the building that housed GEC was demolished in 2002.
In 1985, the workers at GEC decided to stage a strike as they had not received a pay increase for a 3 year period and GEC Traction had informed the workers that there was no money for a planned pay increase. The strike itself was supported by GEC Turbine generator workers but they did not go on strike. However, the lorry drivers who had deliveries for GEC Turbine, all turned away when they were asked to support the workers. The result of this was that GEC Turbine management put pressure on GEC Traction management to end the strike as soon as possible. This pressure helped the workers to win the dispute and return to work after a 6 week period.
To view the copy of Nigel's poem, please feel free to pop in the Heritage Centre. We are open Monday to Friday from 9am until 4.30pm.
For more information on the poetry group 'Write Out Loud' please email info@writeoutloud.net