Behind the group of great women in the famous 1968 strike at Ford’s Dagenham plant there was a man.

Bernie Passingham – who has died aged 90 – played a crucial role as TGWU convenor in the iconic dispute which led to the Equal Pay Act.

When nearly two hundred women making covers for car seats downed tools it June of that year it was Passingham who backed them.

Production was halted for a full three weeks as the machinists battled to have their work classified as ‘skilled’ and so earn the same wage as the men at the flagship plant.

Management refused to recognise their demands and Passingham himself relayed the news by phone, telling the workers “that’s it, they don’t want to know. That’s the end of it. And they went out on strike.”

Absolutely tenacious

They did so knowing that in Passingham they had someone Unite Assistant General Secretary, Diana Holland, remembers as an “absolutely tenacious” ally.

Holland knew Passingham – who years later would be played by Bob Hoskins in the film Made in Dagenham – through their union work.

She thinks his upbringing may well have influenced the way he viewed the dispute.

“He wanted to make sure that women were properly recognised. He realised that you had to make a stand and he was prepared to do that.

Hard life

“Growing up he’d seen the very hard life that his mother had and the importance of women’s pay to families”, she said.

“Bernie did the work behind the scenes to make sure that change happened and wasn’t bothered about getting credit himself for that.”

This humility was typical of someone who argued that the women were leading the strike and refused to accompany their delegation to the meeting with Employment Secretary, Barbara Castle, which resolved the dispute.

A second strike at the plant in 1984, in which Passingham again played a key role as senior T&G official, eventually led to full recognition of the skills and equality of pay for the job the women were carrying out.

Pride

As Carolyn Simpson, equalities officer for Unite’s London and Eastern Region, said, “Bernie helped to put equal pay on everyone’s agendas and for that we should remember him with pride.”

Passingham was born in Holborn, London. His father was hospitalised after the First World War, leaving his mother to raise a large family.

In the mid-1930s the family moved to the new Dagenham Estate. Passingham started working for Briggs Motor Bodies as a production worker, but at the age of 17 he joined the army.

Over the next four years, he saw action in North Africa and in Italy.

After the war he returned home to take up a job as a production worker with his old company, and there he met Kathleen, who had worked as a welder during the war. They married in 1950.

The company was bought by Ford in the 1950s and Passingham remained with them, eventually becoming a union convenor. He would rise to become chief of the Ford convenors.

Bernie Passingham: born Holborn 2 April 1925; died Southminster, Essex 18 July 2015.

A full tribute to Bernie Passingham will be featured in the forthcoming issue of Unite Works magazine.