A man from the Wirral said his marriage was saved when he was forced to scavenge from the local tip after he was sacked.
The story of Mickey, 30 at the time, was featured "On the Scrap Heap", a 1985 episode of the popular documentary series "World in Action", by ITV Granada. The episode focused on the plight of men from Birkenhead like Mickey, recently unemployed after redundancies made by local shipbuilding company Cammell Laird, which employed hundreds in the area.
Mickey, who had "worked all his life in ship repair," won promotion to "charge hand" and was leading a team of riggers by the time he was made redundant. He told the documentary crew that the sacking changed his life completely.
