The reimagination of unions

Untill the mid 80’s the unions in the UK held considerable power, they elected political leaders, could force changes of government and to this day hold substantial power in the British Labour party.

John Smith was only Labour leader for a brief time, under his leadership the party accelerated the reforms started by Neil Kinnock that were designed to make the party electable on a national level once again. Had this reinvention of the party not happened I think it would have been almost impossible for Labour to come to power in 1997 under Tony Blair.

Arguably John Smiths biggest single contribution to making the Labour party relevant was getting rid of the trade union block votes and despite considerable trade union opposition establishing a policy of “one-member, one-vote”. Previously the unions had dominated the party by owning huge blocks of votes, the number depended on the number of members of that particular union and together far outweighed the ordinary members of the party. This policy of bloc-votes dated back to an attempt by other political parties to delay the formation of the party in the late 1800’s.

A series of strikes action by multiple unions during the winter of 1978-79, known as the “Winter of discontent” clearly contributed to the downfall of the James Callaghan’s Labour government. Ironically Callaghan was a staunch a trade-unionist (and could not have become Labour leader had he not) but also a realist. Inflation was high, the economy was shaky and the government had appealed for unions to exercise pay restraint, as part of the government’s policy to control inflation.

The government attempted to limit unions to a 5% pay rise led, this call was ignored when Ford negotiated a 18% pay rise with it’s manufacturing unions and the rest of the motor sector was required to followed suit.  This led to government requests for pay restraint to being widely ignored across the private sector.

This led to widespread official and unofficial strikes across the country in both the private and public sectors starting in late ’78. Lorry drivers, power station workers, rubbish collectors, rail workers, nurses, ambulance drivers and perhaps most infamously grave diggers all walked out. This led to a feeling of crisis in the country. I recall nightly scenes of picketed hospitals, heaps of rubbish, piles of coffins and sitting in the living room with lit candles as we lost power once again.

The effect on public opinion was considerable, in a little over three months Labour went from a 5% lead over the Tories in the polls to 20% behind. This led to Callahan’s government loosing a vote of no-confidence in the house and directly led to the Conservative victory in the 1979 general election.

A major part of the Conservative election platform was to control the growing power and boldness of the unions. The Conservatives under Thatcher made calling a legal strike far more difficult. Wild cat strikes (no-notice walk outs), closed shops (mandatory union membership) and flying pickets (pickets brought in from other trade unions) were all outlawed. The legislation was seen by many as a direct response to the winter of 78/79 that led to the vote of no-confidence in the Callahan government.