David Angulo worked as a Management Accountant at Westland and remembers going on strike for more pay

I was only ever on strike once but I wasn’t even a union steward then. I think it was on a pay deal but we went on strike for I think it was five weeks and we had various meetings up at the old football ground, so it was not the Huish Park as it is today, but this takes you back, it was the old football ground which is now Tesco’s and I think it finally got resolved. We got a pay rise, probably wasn’t as big as we were asking for but it was like all these things, we were asking for this, the company was asking for something – telling us, can’t afford that – way, way lower and you settle for somewhere in the middle.

In all my forty years, strike once, industrial tribunal once, that’s not bad really

I never got into what I call major disputes. I found it interesting when people came with a problem. I was given time by the management, we had a union office, still do I hope. I had my own office and private space to talk to people and given time to do that. I was given Tuesday and Thursday afternoons that was it. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons people knew I was available to have a chat. In all my forty years, strike once, industrial tribunal once, that’s not bad really because as the management used to say to me, if we have to go off to have a disputing kind of meeting, you know, we’re saying one thing, you’re saying another, then we haven’t really done our job properly and I used to agree with that and say, yes that’s right. If we’ve got to go and kick a few heads and be serious about it all then we haven’t got over the stuff in the first place.

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