31 August 1972: Shrewsbury Builders strike meeting

On this day, 31 August 1972, a meeting of striking building workers in the Chester and North Wales Action Committee was held at the Bull & Stirrup pub in Chester, North West England. During this meeting, it was decided to send six coaches of striking building workers to Shrewsbury the following week to picket construction sites which hadn't yet come out on strike. That day would prove fateful for a number of building worker activists (and the wider trade union movement) as, despite no violence being reported by the dozens of police who followed the pickets all day, 24 workers would be arrested months later on bogus charges of 'conspiracy' to intimidate.
Learn more about the dispute in our podcast episodes 65-66 with Ricky Tomlinson, actor and one of the Shrewsbury 24: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e65-66-building-workers-strike-w-ricky-tomlinson/
Pic: The strikers in Shrewsbury

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