Relations With Unions Flashcards
(6 cards)
Why were unions important to Labour in the 1960’s?
At this point providing large funding for their campaigns and Labour had been founded as a party to defend the unions amongst other things
Point 1: What did the failure and implementation of the national plan show
AND
What view did Wilson take
- as mentioned above failures first indication of Labour Party, under Wilson, willingness to undermine their foundation relations with unions
- further worsened relations with unions in 1969 with the white paper proposal of ‘in place of strife’
- Wilson had taken the realistic view that many in official strikes for higher pay distrusted production, forcing higher labour costs and contributed to inflation and Britains poor export performance
Point 1 continued: what was therefore needed to solve the issue of Union strikes ?
- stronger regulation and efforts to control prices and wages which lead to ‘in place of strife’
- set boundaries in preparation against future strikes: poll before strike if majority pulled then regonized as a legal strike
- Could be argued did not overly negatively impact unions as employers required to keep agreements and consult unions before big decisions
- Unions saw this as a poor attempt to make the restrictions palatable and viewed it as highly oppressive
Point 1: qoute and info
One union leader quoted ‘introduce a taint of criminality into industrial relations’
- when out before cabinet 50 Labour MPs rebelled
- deep divisions with many arguing as the Labour Party they should be defending the right to strike and not undermine it
- paired with the NBPIs attempts to limit wages the party was seemingly undermining its core principles
What did this all cause ?
Why might this be limited
A major reason for Labour fall from power 1970
- convinced those labor voters against unions that the unions had too much power and withheld economic growth from Britain and convinced some union members that Labour was not governing with their interest in mind
- affect on traditional industry union limited as they decreased in size with the National Union of Mineworkers decreasing from 586k 1960 to 279k by 1970
What is the overall arguement ?
The intellectual intimate present but the impact was again entirely negative with a failure to instal proper growth
