Unions march and rally in protest at anti-strike laws

Workers from across the country were last month set to march and rally in Cheltenham to mark the 40th anniversary of the Thatcher government's ban on trade unions at the GCHQ government communications headquarters. They were also protesting at the current government's new laws aimed at restricting the right to strike.

The march, organised by the PCS civil service union and supported by the TUC, followed the route of those held during the 13-year campaign in support of the 14 GCHQ staff sacked after refusing to give up their trade union membership.

This ended in 1997 when a new Labour government overturned the ban. "Forty years on, unions will march through Cheltenham to commemorate the GCHQ victory and to demonstrate continued defiance against minimum service level regulations and attacks on the right to strike," said TUC general secretary Paul Nowak.

"We will once again show a Conservative government that the full force of the union movement stands behind any worker sacked for trade union activity."