NEW SEPTEMBER 2023. In June 1967 British Railways opened their new International Freight Terminal at Stratford.  The idea was that goods directly to or from the Continent would be deposited or collected from there. The management considered it to be an inland port, but the workers regarded it as an ordinary goods depot. When they learned that shippers would be able to use their own labour to handle the goods, they immediately 'blacked' the facility and refused to operate it.

This was initially a local unofficial action, but workers at several other depots in London came out in support and freight services were paralysed. Because of the strentgth of feeling the N.U.R. in due course recognised it as an official strike, and there was strong pressure on it to declare a full national rail strike over the matter. It was sixteen days before the dispute was resolved.

What you get here are scans of a scrap book of contemporary newspaper cuttings, taken from various different unnamed publications.  Its 26 pages cover the news day by day as the crisis broke and then spread.  The negotiations are reported as hopes rose then were dashed, until the final settlement came.  (There are also a few cuttings on those pages not related to the strike.)

These were the days of Harold Wilson's Labour government. The Minister of Transport was Barbara Castle (who seemed to side more with management than with the strikers), the General Secretary of the N.U.R. was Sidney Greene and the Railways Board Chairman was Sir Stanley Raymond.

The file is word-searchable and has bookmarks to each day of the drama. It will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.