As Timex began to outsource labour to other parts of the world, redundancies became more common in the Dundee factories. By 1991 only one factory remained to employ 300 workers. In 1993 the final strike broke out in response to further job losses on unfavourable terms for the workers. The strike sent ripples across the city of Dundee and beyond with many members of the local community and wider trade union movement supporting the striking workers.

Mary McGregor is a retired English and Guidance teacher and lifelong political activist. During the 1993 Timex strike, she was part of the Timex Support group and continues to campaign on issues of anti-poverty and international solidarity. She spoke to Stella about her experiences of picket line solidarity and the legacy of the 1993 Timex strike.

“Everyone in Dundee had an association with Timex, with family and friends who worked there, and when the dispute started the people of Dundee felt they had to be involved. We had a template if you like, from the miners’ strike ten years previous, where people from different political groups and none, all came together as part of the miner’s support group. 

“It really was an act of class solidarity. The Timex workforce, who felt valued, who had real skills and were predominantly women, were suddenly finding themselves facing the fact that their bosses did not care about them. If they weren’t going to make a profit, then they would be discarded and cast aside. And it was that sense of injustice, and a belief that workers should have dignity that brought us together as a support group.

“We met weekly and our role was to support the strikers and the strike committee, those who were finding themselves with nothing as a result of being locked out of their workplace. We took our lead from the strike committee, and we organised socials, benefits and collected donations every week to provide sustenance for those who were no longer receiving wages. We helped to organise mass demonstrations and we helped to build awareness of the dispute throughout the city and beyond. 

Image: courtesy of Trinity Mirror/Alamy Stock Photo.“The dispute was not simply contained within one factory or one city. When others saw the way this transnational company was treating their workers, support groups were set up all across the country. We provided links between those support groups, we put people up who came to support demonstrations. But our main role was to build awareness of what was happening in the Timex dispute across the city, the country and internationally.

“Women had been at the forefront of the miner’s support campaign and had been very active during anti-poll tax campaigns, so there was a tradition of women standing up and making their voices heard.

“There was no sense that the women in the support group were sidelined by louder men, we had an equal voice and if anyone tried to shut us down then that wasn’t going to happen. Women were the backbone of the Timex dispute, on the picket line and organising every day. Sometimes it was the big events that got the publicity, the mass pickets and protests, but those women were there from early morning to late at night, through the night, just making sure there was a presence on the factory gates.

“And sometimes those jobs would be overlooked. Women kept the picket tidy, and that might sound mundane, but it was important. They made sure there was food there, that people were made welcome, that there was always someone to put forward the case for the workers in dispute. Those women were always politicised in a sense, but the dispute brought something out in them as well, it was a political education for all of us. When you’re involved in a struggle it’s something that changes your mindset, and you see yourself as part of something bigger than just your specific workplace. 

“These women understood that. They were women who had fought for years to provide for their families, they were strong and feisty women, and they used that strength in this dispute to show the world that they would not be treated with disrespect. They had value and they wanted everyone to know it.

“So many discussions took place on that picket line and beyond, and these women would not just be lead. These women in themselves were leaders, and they knew when they joined together they had real strength.

‘I think the strike showed that what the bosses will never understand, is the strength and solidarity that comes from class action…’ 

“All they ever know is the value of profit, it’s beyond their understanding that people with no vested interest would join in solidarity. The dispute won’t be remembered as a defeat, what will be remembered is the strength of those women and men. But it was a predominately women workplace, it’s something that’s important for all of us to remember as something that’s part of our culture and history.”