Crepe Sizes Strike

Friar Street, Lenton, Nottingham

On 27 May 1972 forty-four Pakistani workers walked out of the Nottingham-based Crepe Sizes textile factory in response to five Pakistani employees being made redundant after they joined the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU). The factory workers had long challenged management about dangerous and dirty working conditions, particularly as three men experienced serious injuries when using the machines. In addition, the workers often did twelve-hour shifts with minimal break times. The small group of white men who worked at the factory refused to share the canteen with Pakistani workers. These conditions, and the attempts by management to suppress unionization, motivated the workers to go on strike.

The strike was generally effective. For example, new employees and lorry drivers were prevented from entering the factory by the picket line. However, mass organizing became necessary given that the TGWU was indifferent to the plight of the strikers. A solidarity committee was created to support the strikers, which included the strikers’ wives, the Pakistani Friends League and the Black People’s Freedom Movement. The committee was chaired by George Powe, a Jamaican-born Labour councillor for the Nottinghamshire County Council and an anti-racist activist. The committee organized various activities, including a meeting at the Co-Operative Education Centre, where 200 people attended and £50 was raised.

Ray Thorpe, the District Secretary of the TGWU, decided to support the strikers two weeks after the strike began, after much uproar. Soon after, the five workers who were made redundant regained employment and working hours were cut from eighty-four to sixty hours per week. However, many of the strikers’ demands around better working conditions were not met.

The Crepe Sizes strike marked the first of three notable South Asian-led labour strikes which took place in the East Midlands during the 1970s, including the Mansfield Hosiery Mills strike and Imperial Typewriters strike.