The Winter Of Discontent

Question 1

What is the context to the winter of discontent ?

Answer 1

Government strategy relied on unions agreeing to pay rise no more than 5%
- unions disliked Healys policies believed he abandoned the social contract and members were suffering disproportionately from the governments counter inflationary strategy

Question 2

What were the strikes ?

Answer 2

• December 1978: Ford Workers won pay increase of 15%
• followed by lorry drivers in January 1979 demanding a 30% pay increase leading to delivery and petrol shortages
• ** National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) ** who represented some for he lowest paid authority workers demanded 40% increase causing more strikes and overtime bans

Question 3

What was the effect of the strikes ?

Answer 3

Dustbin men didn’t pick up litter causing rubbish to pile up on streets and grave diggers did not work leaving people unburied
- press labelled it as symptomatic of failure to overpower the unions

Question 4

How did Callaghan appear in all of this ?

Answer 4

Complacent and out of touch
- attending a summit in the West Indies for a week in January contrasted badly to Britain
- he made statements suggesting there was not a crisis and overlooked the strikes which was ridiculed by the press ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’