The year when Sunderland campaigners fought to save 2,000 jobs and the factory they worked in
Almost 50 years have passed since Sunderland campaigners waged a desperate campaign to keep 2,000 jobs on Wearside.
A top Wearside delegation was set to meet Government officials in London over the fate of the 2,000 Plessey jobs.
The bid to protect the posts was stepped up in March 1977. A meeting of representatives of 15 organisations decided at Sunderland Civic Centre to send representatives to discuss the factory’s closure with Alan William, Minister of State at the Department of Industry.
First, Plessey officials met at the Civic Centre in Sunderland and the Borough Council Leader, Cllr Len Harper said he was still not optimistic.
He said: “It is a very difficult situation to say the least, and what we say may give people hope where there is no hope.”
His despair was well founded. By June that year, proposals for redundancy terms and a planned rundown of the factory were agreed between the unions and the company.
It was then considered by the Department of Employment and if approved, the first 300 workers would leave within a week.
It did hopefully mean that some would be kept on for a while but the end was in sight. Many workers were unhappy with the plans and staged protests.
Plessey was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. But by the 1970s, they were sad times for the Sunderland factory which employed 2,000 people on Wearside. At its height there had been as many as 3,000.
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