More than 150 people, mainly low-paid women, took part in the strike, which lasted 14 weeks.
Their story is told by the childcare workers, carers and parents who took part in the 1984 strike in a new series of the podcast Childcare Voices.
The striking workers united behind the slogan ‘one to four and not one more’ to call for higher staff-to-children ratios in council-run nurseries.
Early years expert and Nursery World Awards winner Julia Manning-Morton was one of these women.
‘We were fighting for better conditions for the children in our care as well as for ourselves. That’s just as important today as it was then,’ she said.
‘Like many nursery workers now, we were some of the lowest paid workers in the borough. We linked up with the miners, who were also on strike at the time.’
The strikers challenged their employer, Islington council, which was led by Margaret Hodge, to fulfil their election promise to improve conditions in the council’s Children’s Day Centres, nurseries run by Social Services.
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