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420 INTO THE THATCHER ERA
had called a one-day strike as part of a general dispute over
government public-sector pay policy. Principal Establishment
Officers from across the Foreign Office met to review the likely
damage to operations . .Tohn Somerville explained that at GCHQ
the situation was complex, since there were 7,500 staff distributed
amongst forty different classes or grades. Half belonged to
the Civil and Public Servants Association, and the majority
favoured action. The Civil Service Union had also lodged a new
pay claim that was likely to lead to trouble. Somerville's main
worry was the impact this might have on sensitive activities:
'The principal area involved would be the computer centre
which might have to be shut down.' This was because the
computers that undertook the core cryptanalysis ran around the.
clock, and depended on shift work. All this, he added, would
have 'unfortunate effects on certain aspects of bi-Iateral cooperation'
by which he meant GCHQ's collaboration with NSA. IO
The next serious dispute with the Radio Operators did not
arrive until 1979. The strikes of that year, which rumbled on
until 1981, were partly caused by an acceleration of the Cold
War, driven by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Normally,
fresh monitoring equipment for the Radio Operators at locations
such as Cyprus and Hong Kong underwent a long period
of development and operational testing. However, from 1979 a
series of crises drove the emergency deployment of new sigint
equipment, with little discussion about procedure. This time it
was the local managers, or Station Radio Officers, who were
upset. The Station Radio Officer was the local manager of
resources, and his key role was tactical targeting. If an international
event occurred that was of interest, he had responsibility
to shift the station's effort from routine targets to new
targets of opportunity. Such redirection was required frequently
during the mUltiple international crises that occurred between
late 1979 and early 1980.
Peter Little, who had been head of K Division, the part of
GCHQ dealing with non-Soviet traffic, in the early 1980s, later
identified the four international events which coincided with