Friday 24 Oct 2025, 20:30
In February 1981, amid fears the Lee Jeans factory was to close, 240 members of staff barricaded themselves inside while negotiations regarding their jobs took place. The sit in lasted 7 months, during which the community banded together to support workers and their families. Local eateries delivered food and shipyard workers donated money and other supplies and attended a rally at the factory the day staff were to be forcibly removed. The event made national news and finally in August 1981 the firm was bought out and all 240 jobs were saved.
The documentary features interviews with workers, their families and local historians, a reconstruction of sit in events (script written during workshops with Greenock Writer's Club), songs commissioned by local singer/songwriters, photographs, letters and other artefacts.
Part of the Lee Jeans Sit-In Heritage Project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, gathering stories to inform creative outputs such as original songs, a documentary film and visual arts working with the community.