Glasgow Branch 1901-1991.

“Marching to a slightly different tune”

Copied from contact 1991.  Ian Cuthbert (Author) 1991

Time and distance make this account merely a snapshot of the public face of the branch.  And by necessity selective.  I have included many names of individuals, not because they were unique, for many hundreds, indeed thousands have made the Glasgow Branch what it is. Those mentioned either played a special part or the names are illustrative of an era.

It is also to be hoped that my efforts will spur others to begin the task of collating much source material in time for a more definitive history to celebrate a hundred years.  Damm it all – I might do it myself.  So if there is anything you would like to tell me….

I personally have gained and grown up as a result of being in this Branch of the union.  As Alf Beattie, Who deserves special thanks says “the guiding principle is securing the greatest good for the greatest amount of people”.  That is what the branch has stood for throughout its history.

All of us have benefited from Glasgow’s collective strength – we owe too a debt.  It is your Branch - make it work. Willie McBride, a founder member of this branch, put it more eloquently.

“I hope this short history of the society has brought home to the younger generation the struggles, the setbacks, the disappointments and the successes which attended the birth of our society.  To them I would say join the Union, attend the meetings, and be a loyal member of the society so that we, the early pioneers can look with pride on the fact that our struggle has been worthwhile”

In the beginning

The year is 1901. Victoria had died in January and Glasgow was again exhibiting itself to the world, in the corner of a pub, a group sit in earnest discussion.   A scene not entirely unknown in the life of the City, neither before nor since.   Conversation centres not on the queens death, nor the Exhibition, for these were of lasting interest only to the middle classes.

More immediate and real issues pass across the table.  Pay and conditions are criticised. Talk is of growing dissatisfaction amongst workmates and petty

- imposed by employers. Something must be done. Earlier petitions signed by all employees and presented to the bosses had succeeded in upping wages £1 per week.  But the employers no longer responded to such humble and moderate pleadings.

Sunday working from 8am to 8pm had been imposed on the men operators for which they received 3/-.  Meals were to be taken on the premises.  A protest against this again by “round robin” letter this time was answered by the employers in less friendly terms.  Notices were posted that from a specified date the Sunday duty would henceforth be covered by women on a double day shift :of 8 till 2, and 2 t1ll 8.

The days of servility were over. Talk was cheap but it took money to buy drink. It is unrecorded how much was bought in that Queen St pub that night, but it was in these humble and somehow typically Glasgow surroundings the Branch was born.  Not as many might suspect rooted in the Post Office, but ironically in the privately owned National Telephone Company. Lou Summers, who had organised the meeting, was elected secretary, William Yule the Chairman and a Committee composed of Alex Lyons, William

McBride, Alec Brown, Tom Grace, Alex Reid, Tom Shankland and others was formed. Although there had been earlier attempts at Unionisation of Post Office Telegraph linemen, all ill fated, it is to these pioneers we trace our roots.  Summers, a friend of Kier Hardies’ brother and already active in local politics undoubtedly brought an element of

Radicalism which has been characteristic of the Branch since.   McBride, a more pragmatic individual, injected concern for the day to day detail of workers lives. Some four years earlier he had been responsible for obtaining increase in lodging allowance by, imaginatively, simply writing to the Manager.  Shankland was later to become, Succeeding Lou Summers, the Secretary of the Branch.

 On the fifteenth of May, 1901 the Branch was formed. At its first meeting an entry fee of 1/- and a weekly subscription of 3d were agreed. The next meeting resolved to pay members a Sickness Benefit of 10/- per week although this scheme was short lived for, as Willie McBride recalled “a certain element in the organisation found it a useful means of augmenting their incomes “.

Initially meetings were held on National Telephone Company premises and in the Waterloo Rooms. The employers however were soon to recognise the threat of an organised workforce and the facilities ceased.

Although radical and socialist politics played their part, more mundane matters drove the early telephone engineers to Trade Unionism.

Willie McBride reflected in later years that pay was the major factor. Despite formidable obstacles, the early Branch showed imagination in tackling the problem. In 1902 in an effort to publicise grievances, Summers, Shankland, Ernest Clegg and George McDougall volunteered to parade the streets in sandwich boards. The bosses responded by threatening to sack them. Instead it was decided to hire others for the task. The sandwich men advertised a mass meeting in the Waterloo Rooms to be addressed by Kier Hardie.  In the event, the meeting was addressed by another Labour Party stalwart, Mary McArthur, beginning a link which was to prove significant in later years. The whole episode was a resounding success resulting in a” very appreciable increase in membership”.

It should be remembered in those initial years, the Branch was very much an independent unit, as with others elsewhere in the urban areas. Although called the Society of National Telephone Employees, there was no real national organisation from which to draw strength.  Four years were yet to elapse before this came into being.

Even so the Branch was not idle in securing improvements.  It was fighting for higher wages, shorter hours and an increase in subsistence.

Bells begin to ring

 To understand fully the prevailing conditions and fears, brief consideration must be given to the uncertainties created by the Governments handling of the telephone service.

The telephone was introduced to Britain in 1877. Then, as now, the Government had no uniform plan for its development. Although running its own service, primarily in London, private companies were licensed to operate in other large cities. Of these the National Telephone Company was easily the largest. The Post Office ran the telegraph system.

Not satisfied with these inauspicious beginnings, if matter was further complicated by the 1898 Telegraph Act empowering City Corporations to set up their own telephone services funded from the rates. This fragmentation and added confusion around the likely date of take over by the Post Office inevitably meant no real investment was made in developing the system.  Not an entirely unfamiliar scenario.

Undoubtedly the creation of Glasgow’s municipal telephone service in 1901 provided a climate which Glasgow Branch exploited to the full. The higher wages offered by the Corporation meant an exodus of fitters and operators from the National Telephone Company which was forced to improve conditions to halt this drain.

According to Willie McBride , the name of the Society was changed in 1904 to the Amalgamate Telephone Employees Union embracing employees of both telephone companies.

It is interesting to relate the technology and primitive competition of the day. The Corporation rented telephones at £5 per annum.  In response the National Telephone Company installed party lines for 25/- a year. The Corporation adopted the Bennet Call Wire System [thought to be their undoing]. The Telephone Company invented Relay Calling.  Additionally the latter opened shop in Buchanan St (very near the site of the present BT telephone shop) for the sale of domestic telephones, internal telephones and electrical apparatus.

The terms of take-over by the Post Office published February 1904, forced the need for national union organisation. Quite simply, clause 8 of the takeover agreement made clear that the Post Master General gave no undertaking to employ the vast majority of National Telephone employees.

Clearly the need to have the whole voice of telephone engineers heard bred the necessity of uniting the independent trade union pockets formed in the large cities.  It was thus that Lou Summers, Glasgow Secretary was contacted.

On the 31st May 1905, the National Society of Telephone Employees was founded.  Glasgow at last was part of a national Union comprising of some sixteen Branches.

All of this it should be noted was in the telephone service. Within the Post Office, it is known that a Branch of the Engineering and Stores Association was inaugurated in 1904. Years were yet to pass before telegraph and telephone employees could attend the same Branch meeting.  Indeed both looked at each other with a somewhat jaundiced eye.

In 1906 Glasgow Corporation telephones were taken over by the Post Office giving the Branch its first foothold in that august body. Members in the National Telephone Company were to wait some considerable time for that privilege!

The working class, preoccupied by daily struggle, so rarely finds time to record its history.  And the Glasgow Branch was no exception. Although the minute details of activity have been lost to the mists, it is known that local organisation was strong.

So too were the Branches in other large cities such as Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester. The National Society of Telephone Employees [NSTCE] not however as professional and resilient as the sum of its component parts. Perhaps a lesson we still have not learned.

In those early years the NSTE executive was dominated by Londoners, a position challenged at conference in 1906. Showing an exceptionalism for which it was to become widely known, Glasgow moved a resolution calling for Scotland to become a separate unit of the Union. Although defeated, as has often been the case, the challenge was to provoke discussion on making the Executive representative of the Branches.

In 1909 coincident with the election of Victor Jeffreys as National Secretary, Lou Summers from Glasgow was appointed National Organiser.  So began a tradition of national input by the Branch. The Executive, it was resolved would henceforth consist of three Londoners and nine provincial members.  In all the NSTE was becoming something more resembling a professional and nationally representative Trade Union.  It was as a consequence of this appointment that Tom Shankland became secretary in Glasgow.

Lou Summers himself became part of a team which was to result in a further change of name for the Union. In 1909 the telephone engineers were to amalgamate, not as you may think with telegraph workers, but with the association representing telephone Operators led by Mary McArthur.  No doubt the links forged much earlier between McArthur and Summers whilst secretary in Glasgow aided the merger.

And so men and women telephone workers in Glasgow came together in the Amalgamated Society of Telephone Employees. It is interesting to note that the principle of one rank and file Union for all employees of the company remains the Branch’s policy.

Hello, is that the Post Office?

Although little is recorded of the local life of the Branch in this period, it is known that Summers, for a brief period became General Secretary of the ASTE.  There can be no doubt however, given the political tumult on Clydeside around this time that there were many stormy days. There was too the rivalry with the Engineering and Stores Association. A division which continued beyond the transfer of the National Telephone Company to the Post Office in January 1912.

All attempts to forge a common approach to problems of seniority and establishment prior to the transfer failed.

It was not until December 1915, foreshadowing much later amalgamations, the ASTE and the ESA held conferences in the same building but different rooms. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Notwithstanding this fractured beginning a new Union was born under the title of the Amalgamated Engineering and Stores Association.

This was to become the Post Office Engineering Union in 1919.

Throughout this time Shankland remained Branch Secretary. Others, in addition to the original committee such as James Lindsay, Sam Taylor, Bob Smith, George and Duncan McDougall, Sam Doak played a formative role in developing the Branch.

Whilst there was much to occupy those pioneers in building our own Union, the Branch already recognised the need for solidarity between individual Unions. Delegates were sent from the earliest times to Glasgow Trades Council.

The Branch accounts throughout the period show the range of affiliations as outward looking.  It is notable even in those days that the Branch should be supportive of the Scottish Home Rule Association illustrating the peculiarly Scottish socialist outlook for which the Branch was to be known for decades to come.

Donations, such as that made in 1925, to Famine Relief in Ireland reflected humanitarian instincts which have remained to this day.

The active and formal link with the Trades Council was interrupted in 1927 as a result of the Trades Disputes Act which barred Civil Service unions from association with others. Indeed the Union as a whole was made to disaffiliate from the TUG. The interruption was to last for twenty years! It is known however that the Branch maintained and fostered “informal” links with the wider movement.

Although named the Glasgow Branch, members worked throughout West Central Scotland making organisation difficult. Alf Beattie, the Branch’s living link with those early days, recalls how it took him three attempts to substantively join the Branch. Having begun in the Post Office by passing the Civil Service Exam at 16, he opted for engineering work initially as a messenger boy. Although having to fight against edicts to the contrary, he eventually became a Youth in Training. Twice because of dispatch to work throughout western Scotland, his Union membership lapsed through difficulty in contacting a Branch Collector.

Out of Town

It was not until his return in 1931 to the more centrally organised Glasgow that he began constant membership of the Branch which has lasted to this day.

By this time Tom Shankland had been succeeded as Secretary by Duncan McDougall, Hugh Cameron being in the Chair. In 1932 Alf was elected to the Branch Committee and immediately set about convincing the Branch of the need for a recruitment and organising drive throughout the “patch”.

Although having members in such diverse areas as Stranraer, Dumfries, Ayr, Falkirk, Fort William the organisation was weak out with the City. The Branch Committee and Officers of the day took on the task with vigour and no little imagination. Alf Beattie again relates how on one occasion he and others borrowed a car from a member living in Motherwell and travelled to Dumfries, an arduous and dangerous journey on icy roads.

In those days employment, particularly for unestablished workers was less than secure. Gang foremen were regarded as tin gods. And the Post Office employed casual labour. Recruitment was not easy. Despite this the men were addressed and new members gained. Similar treks were made to all of the other towns in West Central Scotland.

Recruiting members was one thing. Keeping them in the Union was another. It was necessary to develop a network of reliable collectors. These were to become in later years the nuclei of local Branches. It is interesting to recall nowadays the reluctance of these members in the more rural areas to take that organisational step and form their own Branch.

It was only by constant reminding that by doing so they would then have an equal footing with Glasgow members in having local officers who could resolve problems speedily without recourse to the centre. Bob Hainey in Dumfries was one of the most receptive, resulting in that Branch being one of the first formed. In the early forties Stranraer, Falkirk, and others followed.

The thirties wasn’t only a period of membership expansion. The Branch was to the forefront in the many occupational issues of the day.  There was a deal of dissatisfaction over Pay and, even then, shorter hours.  Post Office Engineering department employees worked a net 48 hour week. Those members who had earlier transferred from the National Telephone Company had been rewarded by having to work an extra three hours per week. In 1937, Duncan McDougall expressed the anger of the Branch at conference that there had been no news of a wage increase and called for a claim to be immediately submitted.

So began an almost annual ritual for Branch Delegates!

But it wasn’t all fun.    Matt Brown, who began work as a teleboy in 1936, recalls being paid off because of the recession.

In 1939, the Branch played host to the 23rd Annual Conference of the Union. A reception at the Grosvenor restaurant saw the delegates piped to their seats by the Glasgow Branch Pipers and subsequently entertained by a Police Concert party!

War and Upheaval

By that time Ted Williams had been elected secretary when McDougall was called up. Indeed the onset of war meant a reorganisation of the Branch as a whole. Alan McIntyre was in the Chair with Alf Beattie now vice Chair. The political dissention for which the Branch was famous was somewhat thwarted when AR was not allowed to become a conscientious objector.  He was already in a reserve occupation.

The vicissitudes of war service meant the Branch was constantly in a state of flux. William Shanks was secretary for a year in 1940/41. Alf served as Chairman. At the next AGM, Ted Williams again returned as secretary.  In 1942 Alf became secretary. Around that time Jimmy Kirkwood, who was himself to become the secretary most members recall, performed a number of Branch roles.

In 1943 Alt Beattie was elected to the National Executive Council beginning a remarkable connection between the Branch and the national leadership. 1944 saw the Branch going one better.  Both Alf and Jimmy Kirkwood were elected to the NEC.

Throughout the war, the daily struggle of workers continued. Through Alt and Jimmy, the Branch was active on the Scottish Regional Whitley Committee. Some issues seem strange today. In 1944 the Branch was arguing for a relaxation in the amount of Home Guard duty required to be performed by Youths - in - Training. In particular it was being sought that they should be excused from the Sunday Parades.

Willie McLellan had a brief stint as Secretary in 1946/47.

Organisationally, the Branch re-affiliated to Glasgow Trades Council anticipating the repeal of the Trades Dispute Act in 1947.

August that year saw another milestone in the Branch’s development. The first edition of “The Line, Glasgow’s Branch’s own publication announced itself with the immortal words “first edition has taken effect, its primary purpose is for the enlightenment of some of our less fortunate comrades who have been unable to attend our Monthly General Branch Meetings.” And who could argue with that.

By now George Donn was serving the first of his two years as Secretary. At that time the meetings were held in the Branch Hall. This was situated in leased premises at the Railway Rooms, Parliamentary Rd which were looked after, on behalf of the Branch by Dick Duncan and Arthur Blisset.

Dark Days

Issue 5 of “The Line” reported on one of, if not the, saddest episodes in our history. Some years earlier Jimmy Kirkwood had become Chairman due to the resignation of the previous incumbent over some financial trouble within the Branch. After three years in office he discovered further serious problems with the Branch accounts. This was reported to the NEC, of which both he and Alf Beattie were members.  A Special Investigation in Glasgow found that the Treasurer had succumbed to temptation and was, by his own admission, wholly to blame.  All other Officers of the Branch, including Kirkwood were found to be absolutely blameless in the matter. 

The Executive Council firstly questioned whether it was appropriate for Alf and Jimmy to be present when it discussed the matter on the 23rd October 1947.  Although allowed to remain for interrogation but were flung out when the vote was to be taken. By a majority of eight votes to six it was resolved the Kirkwood should resign from the Executive. He refused. The next day, by the same vote, he was removed from officer-ship within the Union.

Kirkwood then took the matter to court, the action being heard before Mr Justice Denning in the High Court . The hearing transcript concentrates solely on technical arguments about the rules of the Union belies the underlying basis for Jimmy’s removal.

The hard-line, hysterically anti - socialist right wing had seized on the opportunity to get rid of a doughty political opponent. This was the Unions own little bout of McCarthyism.

The court ruled in the Executives favour, but Jimmy would not be silenced for long.

In 1950 he became secretary of the Branch, a position he was to hold for some twenty five years.

Fifty-Not Out

The early fifties saw a reorganisation of Post Office generally and the Telephone Areas were created. Although by this time separate Branches had been formed in many parts of Western Scotland, the Glasgow Branch continued to represent many members in the new Scotland West Telephone Area. Sub sections of the Branch were to be found in Helensburgh, Oban, Fort William, Tobermory, The Western Isles and interestingly in view of present talk of Branch rationalisation - a Motor Transport sub section.  The Branch membership was around the 1500 mark -- a figure which was to inexorably increase until more modern times. That the Branch was being served well is illustrated by the fact that between 1949 and 51 only 32 members left to join breakaway associations.

It must be remembered organising this total was no easy task. No deduction at source of contributions meant a tremendous task for hundreds of unsung stalwarts - the Branch Collectors. It also meant sacrifice on the part of members. Because of travel difficulties from the far flung outposts of the Branch, many meetings - particularly AGMs - were held on Sunday afternoons!

In 1951 the Branch held a Jubilee Dinner which Willie McBride addressed - a remarkable commitment.  This period saw the beginnings of a stability in the Branch leadership which has characterised Glasgow since. Alf Beattie resumed as Chairman making a formidable pairing with Kirkwood.

Names such as lain Nicolson , Matt Brown , Bob Bruce, Frank McCulloch, Davy Girvan , Sam McNaught, George Imlach and Jimmy Crofts are found on record as part of a Branch leadership which are unsurpassed for consistency and experience.

In 1953 the tradition of holding meetings on the second Thursday of the month began. In 1954, the Branch imposed a successful overtime ban causing repercussions throughout the country. The issue involved was of amounts granted under the Pay Supplements Agreement and was largely successful. Even so, the decision by the Committee to lift the embargo on Saturday overtime, was hotly contested by the rank and file at a special Branch meeting. It was an event which was to have its echoes in later years.

The records and minutes of the era show the vast range of issues dealt with by the Branch. Many of the problems are familiar still to members -- Promotion, Substitution superannuation, accommodation, discipline.

It is testament to the unstinting work of all the activists that the Branch continued successfully despite the demands on its Officers. In addition to their Branch duties, which often saw them on visits to the sub sections, Jimmy Kirkwood served on the National Executive and both he and AIf Beattie fulfilled roles at regional level within the Union.

During this period the “Cold War” was at its height. Needless to say the leftwing politics of many in the Branch was a source of irritation not only to the right wing bloc leadership of the Union, but to management itself. Then as now the Civil Service mandarins frowned on anything more subversive than forgetting to tug a forelock. The outspokenness for which Glasgow was famed was sure to draw their ire. The wrath of the state came down on the head of the Branch Chairman who was suspended in 1955 for six months. This action caused local management no little embarrassment and had its ludicrous side.

Jimmy Kirkwood and the Branch deemed that if AIf was not allowed to represent the Branch at official meeting then no-one would attend. A hastily agreed compromise was reached.

Management were forced to concede that AIf continue to represent the Branch although he was barred from “sensitive” areas of the department. He was not, for instance, allowed entry to the transatlantic cable terminal in Oban despite the fact that he had intimate knowledge of the interior having been involved in the planning of it!

Modern Times and familiar faces

The beginning of the sixties saw the Branch going from strength to strength. The low turnover of committee members was still evident although youngish faces began to appear -- Bob McLean, Tony Vernal, Charlie Love and Bob Caldow. Some present managers, such as Dennis Lappin and George Glasgow made appearances on the committee. And a certain H Lawless is recorded as being a collector at 250 St Vincent St!

In 1963 the Branch magazine was re-launched this time ,with the, now familiar , title of “Contact. The reproduction was by hand cawed printer and there are unattributed accounts of how prospective magazine committee members were vetted more for their physical prowess than journalistic endeavour.

This was a period of rapid expansion of the telephone service and this was reflected in the Branch membership rising from 1800 to 2700 during the decade. It is in this era that the bulk of the present membership began their working life within the Post Office.

For a brief period the Branch took over tenancy of a basement flat in august surroundings of Park Circus which was used as an office, print room and committee meeting place. It was soon to take up a long lasting residence in Carlton Place tenants of the Trades Council.

In 1964 AIf for a brief period rejoined Jimmy Kirkwood on the NEC. Others, such as Jimmy Crofts and Charlie Bruce, were to go on to higher things with STE.

In 1968 the Branch scored an historical first by negotiating locally a Branch representative’s scheme well ahead of its time. It was in fact still born as shortly afterwards management withdrew from the agreement. It was however to provide a model for things to come.

With the post war economic upswing at its height, a new confidence and militancy grew in Labour Movement. This was such as to penetrate even the cocoon of Civil Service life. In 61 and 69 the Branch played a part in the industrial action over pay.

The end of the sixties saw the Branch emerge as the largest within the POEU. It was unique too amongst large City branches in being composite spanning both internal and external members. Both these facts reflect in their way the organisational graft of the activist and the industrial/political outlook of the Branch as a whole

Young Turks - almost!

Bob Caldow succeeded Alt as Branch Chairman in 1970 ushering in a new decade. Frank McCulloch ended his term as an “interim” treasurer after 23 years! Being on our committee was a bit like going to Dial House to work. People joined for curiosity and stayed for ever. He was to be replaced by the formidable Bob Bruce!

For most of Its existence apart from those very early days the Branch, in common with most in the POEU was very much a male bastion. As a result of trade union rationalisation in 1972, drawing office members resolved by ballot to join the POEU. Representing these members Kitty Boland and Myra George took their places on the committee.

1973 saw further major organisational changes for the Union as a whole and the Branch. The deductions at source scheme began providing a financial stability but rendering redundant the network of collectors. In an effort to maintain that workplace link the Branch Representative System was finally introduced becoming the initial step to activity for many within the Branch. In the same year the problem of having members in two differing Telephone Areas was finally overcome. The Scotland West Central Branch was formed from members in Dumbarton, Helensburgh, Oban and those working in 250 St Vincent St at the Scot West Area GMO.

The decade was marked by a new younger generation of activists. After all, the love in of the sixties was over. The early seventies saw a massive upswing in industrial militancy. The general mood of Trade Unionists was optimistic. Davie Dick, Ray Wyper, a certain young John Cameron, George Macintosh, Jim Mitchie all joined the Committee. Both Jimmy Dougan and Adam Livingston began what were to be long stints. Later Phil Hughes was to limp onto the scene.

Whereas throughout most of its existence the Branch, as much of Glasgow Trade Union life, was influenced by the Communist Party, the younger generation were generally part of the left of the Labour party which had grown in the late sixties. Philosophical and theoretical debate on the ideological differences between Trotskyism and Stalinism had to take its place along with day subsistence problems!

Reflecting the general rising industrial and political temperature , the decade saw perhaps the liveliest meetings and AGMs in its history. Charlie Love became Assistant Secretary in a tightly fought contest with Ray Wyper on the resignation of Matt Brown.

In the mid seventies, the Branch was to lose Jimmy Kirkwood to the STUC. Charlie became secretary.

The debate was fierce and the arguments keen. But there was no outlet for the growing militancy. The Branch was all revved up, with nowhere to go. This was not to last for long.

A Decade of Struggle

1978 provided the catalyst. The fight over the Shorter Working Week involved all members in a work to rule and in selective strikes. This was to usher in a decade in which the Branch was almost constantly involved in industrial action.

The anti privatisation campaign of the early eighties saw a one day strike and levies. The Branch pulled out members in Baird, a tactic which worked well in 78. We had not learned the same lessons as management. The exchange just refused to crash. The aftermath was a bitter pill to swallow.

The militancy and leftward movement in the Union propelled Charlie Love onto the National Executive as, for the first time since the war; the power of the bloc was broken. In 1983 John Cameron became Secretary. In those tumultuous days John became very ill, and for a brief period David Airlie took over.

The changing attitudes of the employers provoked an explosion. After years of recruitment suddenly management began to talk of job cuts and redundancy. A noisy and excited meeting in the City Halls overturned a Committee recommendation and a six month overtime ban began in 1984.

An attempt to enforce attendance patterns on CSO members in Central led to strike action. The Branch had so refined its propaganda machine that on hearing one evening management intended issuing a leaflet to members the next day, a response leaflet was issued by the Committee. So good was the distribution that many members had the response before management’s.

The Broad Strategy and defence of jobs were on lips throughout the Union. Glasgow simply voted with its feet

Further job cuts led again to an overtime ban peppered with strikes, this time in concert with the whole of the newly formed West of Scotland District Council. It was from these embattled times many of the present committee and reps emerged. So large were the meetings in those stormy days, the Branch was eventually refused access to the city halls. So many times had we broken the fire regulations!

In January 87, the NCU, as it was now known was in bitter conflict over pay. The Branch had been asked by the Engineering Group Executive to hold a 24 hour strike. For reasons best known to themselves, and despite warnings from Branch Officers of the consequences, management suspended two members the day before the planned strike. Within one hour all BT members in Glasgow were out.

Although the final sell out demoralised many, those three and a half weeks on strike was perhaps the Branch’s finest moments.  The membership was magnificent. For long periods every building was picketed on a twenty four hour basis. The organisation, especially by many who hitherto had not been Branch activists, was outstanding. Bob Caldow, in his final year as Chairman, brought a lifetimes experience to bear.

Today (1991)

Charlie Love became Chairman, John Cameron remains secretary. The Branch has a postal sub section and a thriving retired members section.

Sporadic talks occur with other Branches for rationalisation. Perhaps the wheel will turn full circle.

But this is in the future, the rest, as they say is history