A SPECIAL commemoration of the famous Lee Jeans sit-in will be organised by Inverclyde Council this year to mark its 40th anniversary.

The landmark moment in February 1981 saw the mainly female workforce barricade themselves into the Greenock textile plant to save their jobs after it emerged the factory could close down with machinery shipped off to Northern Ireland.

What was originally meant to be a one-night protest eventually lasted seven months and, in the end, the 240 workers won their fight against the American VF Corporation.

Four decades on, elected members have voted to organise an appropriate event to remember the iconic moment.

A motion lodged by Chris McEleny and Lynne Quinn received unanimous backing at the latest full council meeting, as all members agreed to commend everyone who took part in the sit-in.

Councillor Quinn said: "Women at that time got paid two-thirds of their male counterparts' salary.

"All the managers and the politicians involved were all males.

"It highlights just how significant it was in terms of these females.

"I think there are lessons that can be learnt today from this event about working together."

Officials have been tasked with organising the commemoration.

Councillor Jim Clocherty added: "I stayed about a few hundred yards from the factory and a lot of my family and friends worked there.

"Everything that Lynne says is right about equal pay, but the dispute was really just about the right to work."

On the first night of the sit-in, machinist Margaret Wallace and a male colleague famously crept out of a skylight window and went shinning down a drainpipe to go and buy fish and chips before returning with 240 suppers.

Word of the workers' exploits soon got round and they received support from all over the world.

After the seven-month protest, a management buy-out saved the factory and the workers still occupying the building won back their jobs.