Toby Atkin-Wright

The BBC reports the 30th anniversary of the Lee Jeans factory sit-in in Greenock, which it calls a “a highly significant chapter in Scottish labour relations”. At an event at the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Duncan McNeil, Labour MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, called it “a landmark victory against a US multinational”.

After a seven-month sit-in in 1981, a management buy-out saved the factory, and the 140 protesting workers were re-employed. It was hailed a great victory.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12703205 (recent news story)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12366211 (a bit of history)

Two years later, in June 1983, the new management called in receivers, and the factory closed.

Is the sit-in something to celebrate? Or just a sad footnote in the history of Scotland's industrial decline?

The BBC reports the 30th anniversary of the Lee Jeans factory sit-in in Greenock, which it calls a “a highly significant chapter in Scottish labour relations”. At an event at the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Duncan McNeil, Labour MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, called it “a landmark victory against a US multinational”.

After a seven-month sit-in in 1981, a management buy-out saved the factory, and the 140 protesting workers were re-employed. It was hailed a great victory.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12703205 (recent news story)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12366211 (a bit of history)

Two years later, in June 1983, the new management called in receivers, and the factory closed.

Is the sit-in something to celebrate? Or just a sad footnote in the history of Scotland's industrial decline?