That's the reason I asked whether you were referring to 84/85. "Breaking the backs of the unions" has often been cited as a 'good' Thatcher policy, but I simply don't agree. The fact of the matter is that ordinary workers now have fewer protections as a result. However, what people forget is that the Labour government had actively been pursuing policies which were antagonistic to union power. This was already going on before the Conservatives got back into power. The 'energy crisis' made it easy to imply that it was those wicked trade unionists who were to blame and were 'holding the country to ransom', rather than laying the blame at the door of successively incompetent government.
A lot of the problems supposedly 'endemic' to the unions in the 70s were focused around 2 major issues - defective management, and the very time-specific issues of legality. The 70s had seen a string of legal decisions which strongly restricted the rights of workers to protest, particularly with regards to Strikes. Lord Denning was famously antagonistic towards unions and in fact had to be restrained by the House of Lords in this matter. It was hardly surprising that organised workers felt unjustly treated in this atmosphere.
Destruction and dismantling of the rights of workers was the first step in a series of disempowering actions designed to allow business freer reign in what was supposed to be a post-Keynesian economic structure. Doing the same thing to the welfare state was also part and parcel of this.
In my opinion, the power of the unions, as was demonstrated, was nowhere near enough.
There was an undeniable problem of craven and overambitious union leaders who were in the game for their own benefit, but that was hardly the fault of ordinary trade unionist and certainly didn't mean that they should be pnished. The solution would be to turn more attention to the complex position of senior union officials and its potential for abuse, not least in their collusion with politicians and leaders of industry when they are meant to be supporting their members. But that would involve caring about workers having strength to resist unreasonable behaviour form whatever quarter, which is not likely to be what you want when you are attempting to create pliant consumers.
no subject
A lot of the problems supposedly 'endemic' to the unions in the 70s were focused around 2 major issues - defective management, and the very time-specific issues of legality. The 70s had seen a string of legal decisions which strongly restricted the rights of workers to protest, particularly with regards to Strikes. Lord Denning was famously antagonistic towards unions and in fact had to be restrained by the House of Lords in this matter. It was hardly surprising that organised workers felt unjustly treated in this atmosphere.
Destruction and dismantling of the rights of workers was the first step in a series of disempowering actions designed to allow business freer reign in what was supposed to be a post-Keynesian economic structure. Doing the same thing to the welfare state was also part and parcel of this.
In my opinion, the power of the unions, as was demonstrated, was nowhere near enough.
There was an undeniable problem of craven and overambitious union leaders who were in the game for their own benefit, but that was hardly the fault of ordinary trade unionist and certainly didn't mean that they should be pnished. The solution would be to turn more attention to the complex position of senior union officials and its potential for abuse, not least in their collusion with politicians and leaders of industry when they are meant to be supporting their members. But that would involve caring about workers having strength to resist unreasonable behaviour form whatever quarter, which is not likely to be what you want when you are attempting to create pliant consumers.