The year 1984 has a hallowed place in the history of British industrial action as the year that launched the miners’ strike – but there is another strike, in its own way just as dramatic, that has been largely forgotten. On the 16th of April of that year, 155 nursery workers employed by London’s Islington Council began an indefinite strike. What was at issue was chronic understaffing, which led to an unsafe ratio of children to staff. The striking workers consisted almost entirely of young women, many of them in their very first jobs. They remained on strike for fifteen weeks until ultimately Islington Council bowed to their key demands.
Earlier this year, the oral historian Rosa Schling set out to recover that history. The result is a new audio series titled Nursery Workers Bite Back. Over three episodes, the series brings together veterans of the Islington strike and present-day childcare workers and activists to explore how the action developed and the lessons it holds for us now. The series forms part of Childcare Voices, a podcast in which people on the frontlines of the crisis in childcare explore the historical roots of the situations they face.
In this episode we sit down with some of the people who put the Nursery strike audio series together as they reflect on their collaboration. Their conversation is followed by the first installment of Nursery Workers Bite Back, and we encourage you to listen to all three episodes.
