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[[Category:1978 minor characters]] |
[[Category:1978 minor characters]] |
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[[Category:Baldwin's Casuals staff]] |
[[Category:Baldwin's Casuals staff]] |
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Revision as of 12:27, 27 October 2019
Muriel Clough was the daughter of Ida Clough. For a period in mid-1978, she worked alongside her mother as a machinist at Baldwin's Casuals. Muriel had a rather gormless but fiery personality and virtually agreed with everything her mother said; often replying with "Right Mam".
When Ida decided to apply for the role of supervisor at the factory in April, she instructed Muriel to try and flirt with assistant manager Steve Fisher. Muriel attempted this but failed miserably. Ida, Ivy Tilsley and Vera Duckworth subsequently bickered over who should get the job, with Muriel calling out Vera for shouting at her mother leading Ivy to say that Ida should stick one on Muriel. Steve and Mike Baldwin broke up the argument and called the women into the office, where they decided that a selection board was the best way forward to settle the decision. In the end Mike decided to give Steve the supervisor's job and appoint Ivy senior machinist.
Two months later, Muriel was one of the majority of the women who voted in favour of industrial action when Mike sacked Hilda Ogden for requesting a new broom, accusing the cleaner of sabotaging the equipment herself. Muriel felt strongly that Hilda had been badly treated and asked Ivy to mark her up for the first shift when Ivy organised picket line duty, much to the disdain of Ida who had voted against the strike. After the first day's striking, Muriel reprimanded her mother for not being initially supportive of the demo, only to be firmly put in her place with Ida threatening to give her daughter a "good hiding" for speaking to her like that.
When the strike began, Muriel placed herself on the front lines, attempting to stop Mike from entering the factory and later annoying Steve as he tried to leave with a van full of stock. Muriel and the other girls stood in front of the vehicle and Ivy goaded him to run him over, forcing Steve to give in. As the strike progressed, Muriel got wind of the fact that Mike was transferring work to another factory and warned Ivy, resulting in Ivy telephoning the rep of the factory telling them to blacklist any work that Mike sent their way.
Muriel was also present when a coach arrived containing outside workers. Holding he fort on her own, Muriel told the women that there was a strike going on, but they filed into the factory regardless. Muriel immediately summoned her co-workers from the Rovers. Incensed by the outside workers being brought in, the women became very hostile and Muriel let down the tires of the van with help from Vera. All the violence was too much for Annie Walker who phoned the police, who arrived and escorted the outside workers away from the factory. His last-ditch effort to keep the factory going having failed, Mike agreed to reinstate Hilda but refused to pay the girls for the time they spent on strike. When Ivy put it to the vote, Muriel was the only one in favour of continuing the industrial action. She backed down and all the girls went back to work.