Trade Unions

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  • Created by: bea_damon
  • Created on: 12-05-17 19:36

Trade Unions

Advantages

  • The power of trade unions was gradually undermined through a series of Employment Acts
  • The 1980 Act meant that strike action had to be taken against your direct employer and prohibited striking in sympathy with workers in other industries or firms
  • The 1982 Act meant unions could be sued for illegal strike action
  • The 1984 Trade Union Act meant strikes had to be approved by the majority in a secret ballot before they were legal
  • In 1984 Thatcher built up reserves of coal so that the government would be able to resist a miners' strike without having to resort to a 3-day week
  • Arthur Scargill's mistakes contributed the failure of the 1984 Miners' Strike: the strike started 6th March 1984 just as UK was emerging from winter and therefore demanded less energy. He lost public sympathy due to his provocative methods and public disapproval rating never fell below 79% throughout the strike. Scargill did not ballot NUM members about the strike and launched the strike with 'flying pickets'. This led to the miners in Nottinghamshire leaving the NUM to form their own trade union that kept their mines open.
  • The strike was finally defeated on 3rd March 1986
  • As a consequence, the unions were far more willing to work with government legislation. The number of days lost to strikes was reduced from 10.5 million 1980-84 to 0.8 million 1990-94. The number of TU members fell from 13.5 million in 1979 to just under 10 million in 1990

Disadvantages

  • Trade union power was further weakened by a series of Employment Acts in 1988, 1989 and 1990. The percentage of the workforce employed in manual labour fell from 47% in 1974 to 36% in 1991
  • Critics of Thatcher have argued that her TU legislation caused unnecessary suffering. A number of communities were severely affected by the decline of traditional industries such as shipbuilding in Sunderland and steel manufacture in Sheffield
  • The number of miners fell from 200,000 to 10,000 by 1974
  • Conflict with the unions was inevitable due to Thatcher's determination to realign the British economy away from traditional industries and towards financial services

Evaluation

- Thatcher wanted to tackle the unions as part of her economic strategy of reducing the influence of social institutions and promoting individualism- She believed unions bullied individuals into joining them and taking part in strike action they did not want to participate in- She felt that unions acted irresponsibly with no regard for democratically elected government

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