Ida Hackett

Ida Hackett (1914–2012) was a communist, trade unionist and activist, who was involved in the political campaign Women Against Pit Closures.

Early life Hackett was born Ida Chrichlow in 1914 in Warsop, Nottinghamshire. After her father lost his job at Warsop Main Colliery, she became interested in activism.

Career Hackett began working at the Cooperative Society as a pot washer in 1931 and became an active trade unionist. and had been elected to the Mansfield May Day committee. Hackett was a member of the party's executive in the sixties and seventies. Hackett worked at a factory in Mansfield and two national union officials visited to persuade women in the hosiery industry to accept lower rates of pay than men and were dismissed from a meeting by Hackett. Delegates were impressed by the terrific drive in USSR for recovery after the war, people seemed happy under the communist system, but there were long queues in shops for items like televisions.

Hackett was secretary of the Mansfield town's Residents Association and Chair of the Tenants’ Association for Ladybrook and Mansfield. Hackett spoke as a member of the Mansfield Tenants Association in 1971 in Long Eaton, at a meeting which was organised by the communist party and the Trade Union Congress; on the subject of the government's proposals for Fair Deal for Housing. Hackett, as a member of the National Association of Tenants and Residents Executive Committee, spoke at a protest rally after a march in support of a rent strike by tenants at Victoria Park, Leicester against the Government's Housing Finance Bill. Hackett was re-elected Chair of the Mansfield Pensioners action group in February, 1990 and lobbied for an increase in the £10 Christmas bonus. As secretary of the East Midlands Pensioners Action Group, Hackett called on the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, to link pensions to average earnings rather than inflation and to introduce concessionary TV licenses for all pensioners (not just those over 75) or cut standing charges on energy bills.

Nottinghamshire Women Against Pit Closures Hackett chaired the Nottinghamshire Women's Support Groups for families of striking miners (1984), coordinated weekly deliveries from London to Nottingham and spoke all over the country. Hackett was quoted as saying, “it was a new experience for men to see women working in this way, handling enormous amounts of money, speaking about the strike to huge audiences all over Britain and overseas. …..we were on the same side, weren’t we?”. After the strike ended, Hackett was a key figure in the campaign to reinstate 14 sacked miners and helped their families and later she campaigned for justice for pensioners. Hackett was named as a “firebrand” July 1955, and her son, Ian, recalled his mother working as a cleaner for “professional people” like doctors. a memorial meeting was held by trade unionists a few months later.