March 10th, 2011<\/p>\n
Tribute to Lee Jeans heroines<\/strong><\/p>\n Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, has paid tribute to the 240 women who took part in the Lee Jeans sit-in at the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n On the 30th anniversary, the MSP invited former trade union convener Helen Monaghan and ex-workers Margaret Wallace and Catherine Robertson to Edinburgh to hear a debate he had secured on the historic protest.<\/p>\n The women also met with Labour leader Iain Gray, deputy leader Johann Lamont and Port Glasgow MSP Trish Godman.<\/p>\n Mr McNeil said: “Although they didn\u2019t realise it at the time, these women captured the imagination of a country that was being crushed by unemployment at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThey became an inspiration to workers all over the world, not just for the principled stand they took but because they won that fight and kept their jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cIn these difficult times, with unemployment rising, they represent a timely reminder of what people can achieve if they stand together and recognise the importance of the right to work.\u201d<\/p>\n S3M-07898# Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Scottish Labour): 30th Anniversary of the Lee Jeans Sit-in\u2014 That the Parliament remembers the 240 women who staged what it sees as a historic sit-in at the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock 30 years ago, beginning on 5 February 1981; notes that the workers barricaded themselves into the canteen for seven months in protest at the decision to close the factory; salutes the workers for capturing the imagination of the whole country and achieving a landmark victory against a US multinational; wishes the former convener, Helen Monaghan, and machinists, Margaret Wallace and Catherine Robertson, well for the 30th anniversary reunion event that they have organised, and considers the Lee Jeans sit-in to be an inspiration to women workers all over the world.<\/p>\n Link to debate –<\/p>\n