GCHQ Trade Union Campaign

The archive of the GCHQ Trade Union Campaign includes minutes of members' meetings, 1984-97; Campaign Team minutes, 1992-6; subject files (including re disciplinary action, 1986-9); general correspondence, 1984-97; 'Warning Signal', 1984-97; and campaign leaflets, 1984-97. According to a note by Mike Grindley, chair of GCHQ trade unions, there were press cuttings, correspondence and campaign material, etc. at the campaign office in Cheltenham, which formed the first accession deposited in the Modern Records Centre, and his own collection of campaign records which he put into chronological and (for some topics) 'classified order' in summer 2003, which formed subsequent accessions.

The GCHQ trade union campaign began after the decision by the Conservative government in January 1984 to ban unions at the GCHQ (Government Communications Head Quarters) intelligence gathering centre in Cheltenham. Eventually 14 workers were dismissed because of their refusal to resign their union membership. The GCHQ campaign became one of the most important trade union issues during the 1980s and 1990s. With the election of a Labour government in May 1997, the rights of trade unionists at GCHQ were partially restored and the campaign ended.