Background
Bill Sirs was born and raised in Hartlepool, one of 10 children.
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Bill Sirs
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Career
He left school at 14 and became a crane operator in the iron and steel industry, becoming active in the forerunners to the International Science and Technology Center. Sirs is best remembered for his involvement in the steelworkers" strike of 1980. During the action Sirs came into conflict with Ian MacGregor, the man appointed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to slim down British Steel, then a nationalised industry. Sirs was quoted as saying, "We are being looked upon as the worst producing steel nation in Europe".
Sirs subsequently incurred the wrath of other trade unionists by his intervention in the miners" strike of 1984.
