From Immigrants to Ethnic Minority by Lorna Chessum

Author:Lorna Chessum [Chessum, Lorna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Minority Studies
ISBN: 9781351935456
Google: aTUrDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-07-05T03:26:08+00:00

Imperial Typewriters

Imperial Typewriters has been considered one of Leicester’s most important companies throughout the twentieth century. In 1953 the firm went public and attracted a full front page report in the Illustrated Leicester Chronicle69 where it was described as the ‘largest [producer of typewriters] in the British Empire’. The Company employed both men and women and until the time of the strike in 1974 women received around two thirds of the hourly and piece work rates of pay for men.70 Successive Annual Reports from 1953 until its take over by Litton Industries in the mid 1960s consistently mention the shortage of labour as a major problem. For example in 1960/61 the Chairman’s Review reported that ‘production has not kept pace with orders received, the limiting factor being shortage of labour at Leicester’.71 It is not surprising therefore to find that Imperial was an important employer for black and Asian workers in Leicester. It would be difficult to find a black family in Leicester who would not have had a member working at some time or another at Imperials.

The Imperial Typewriters strike which began on May Day in 1974 has been widely written about and is regarded as highly significant in the history of black industrial struggle in Britain (Dhondy, 1974, pp.201-205; Moore, 1975; Wilson, 1978; Braham, Rhodes and Dearn, 1981; Ramdin, 1987; Sivanandan, p. 139). This is at least in part because it illustrates the collusion of trades unions with management in operating racist practices in British industry. It is also used as an example of immigrant workers ‘fighting back’ against their use as cheap labour and of women debunking the myth of passive Asian women workers. Ramdin describes it as an ‘extraordinary strike’ (Ramdin, 1987, p.278). Sivanandan describes it as ‘The apotheosis of racism and therefore the resistance to it’ (Sivanandan, pp. 139-140). The strike attracted media attention and it has been claimed that this was because the workforce was ‘coloured’ and had received attention from the National Front (Bentley, p.234). It is also well remembered as Leicester has a reputation for the absence of industrial conflict.72

The strike at Imperials began as part of strike action at four Leicester firms on May Day. Three hundred workers at British United Shoe Machines, three hundred at Bentleys, two hundred at General Electrical Company in Whetstone and thirty-nine Asian workers from Imperial walked out. The strikers at British United, Bentleys and GEC quickly returned to work but those at Imperial not only stayed out but within a few days had been joined by another five hundred mostly Asian workers. While the initial grievance had been with regard to bonus levels, this was quickly radicalised with a revolt against racism and racist practices at work. The strike was not made official by the trade union concerned (the TGWU), indeed the union sided with the management against the strikers. This was in Ron Ramdin’s words ‘an extraordinary strike’ with the Asian workers and their supporters sustaining a protracted dispute against all the odds. By the end of July most of the strikers had been sacked.

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