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5th January 1972: Fisher-Bendix factory in Kirkby occupied by workforce for five weeks (see also: 12th July 1974, 6th Sept 1974)

In January 1971, Thorn, the new owners of Fisher-Bendix made an announcement that they were going to sell off the Bendix washing machine business, and refused to make a definite statement regarding the future of the factory.

A nine-week strike ensued, but the workers returned exhausted, and Thorn were able to transfer the production of the Bendix machine to CARSA of Spain. It was proposed to move the remaining products to Newcastle subsidiaries.

The workers firmly believed that the main reason for these moves was to exploit cheap labour; whilst the average wage of the Kirkby employees was nearly £30, that of the remaining 71,000 Thorn employees was only £19. Wage rates in Spain were much lower still. At the time there were one million unemployed, and Merseyside, as usual, was especially hard hit. These events sparked the desperation, which erupted in the January occupation. As one angry worker acidly remarked, "The sit-in of 1972 was unique, people who criticise it don't know nothing about it. At the time we were fighting for a job. We couldn’t have got a job anywhere else.
But there was a principle behind it – he (Sir Jules Thorn) moved the Bendix washing machine out to Spain, he wasn’t even going to move it to another part of England like the rest. I wonder if Franco was going to give him a grant? He was looking for cheap labour…”

Immediately the organisation of the sit-in was begun, some workers staying in the factory for a full twenty-four hours. A shift system was arranged with four six-hour shifts ensuring the factory was occupied twenty-four hours a day. Committees were set up to deal with security, finance, publicity and entertainment, and each enjoyed some success. The factory was made secure against trespassers, all visitors having to go through the gatehouse, and also internal theft.

Donations were received from a wide cross-section of the labour movement. Both the initial takeover and the occupation were widely publicised in the mass media — and surprisingly not unfavourably (except the city newspaper the Liverpool Echo which managed to convey an unsympathetic proprietorial outrage). The entertainment provided in frequent shows to relieve the boredom of the workers was impressive, revealing the grass roots feeling of much of the Liverpool arts; the Everyman Theatre gave a special performance in the Works Canteen; also the Spinners folk group; the poet Adrian Henri; and the sculptor Arthur Dooley staged a special exhibition. In addition a Library was set up, and TVs were provided by sympathisers.

The main task of the senior stewards was to enlist the support of the transport industry in stopping the movement of Thom products. A sophisticated information bulletin was circulated nationally, and support was widespread. Also local MPs whose support had been gained, gave notice of a motion in the Commons requesting an inquiry into the extent of public money invested in Fisher-Bendix and absorbed by the parent companies, and an examination of Thorn dealings with companies abroad.

Under the weight of this pressure Thorn were forced to negotiate and, with Harold Wilson the constituency MP acting as intermediary, it was arranged for the new owners Clohurst [which became IPD (International Property Development)] to keep the factory in production with the full 700 jobs. At the time it all seemed an amazingly successful breakthrough for workers’ independent initiative.

…gradually trade picked up. But rather than stabilise the situation, to the shop stewards’ amazement, King [the new managing director] proposed the recruitment of a whole new ‘twilight shift’ of several hundred workers. It was impossible for the stewards to resist the creation of new jobs, so the management had their way. The three-day week affected the company at the beginning of this year [1974] and shortly afterwards it was in obvious financial difficulties.

12th July 1974: Two-week work-in begins at Fisher Bendix factory

The saga took another dramatic turn on Friday 28 June, when IPD issued redundancy notices to all 1,200 employees, while the senior stewards were in London negotiating with the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry], possibly in an effort by King to gain public attention and support in his fight to get the government loan. Anyway, he was quickly persuaded to reinstate all the employees, and substituted a temporary lay off the following Monday, but soon despaired of getting the government loan and called in the Receiver for Barclays Bank on Thursday 11 July.
The next day a mass meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of Jack Spriggs’ call to throw out the Receiver and to sack the present management. In a controlled atmosphere, sharply contrasting with the emotion of the previous occupation, the workers coolly marched into the management’s offices, secured the factory, and escorted the receiver to the gates, (who later announced, after only one day’s study, that the factory could only be viable with 450 employees).

6th Sept 1974: Announced that Fisher-Bendix will become a workers’ co-operative (KME)

After a feasibility study, during which the workers agreed to a rotating lay-off, on 6th September it was announced by [Tony] Benn at a factory meeting in IPD that the DTI had agreed to allow the setting up of a workers’ cooperative on the model of Triumph Meriden.

Extracts from: Sit-in at Fisher-Bendix, by Tom Clarke
An Institute for Workers' Control (IWC) pamphlet 1974