Originally Posted by Dan's Dad:
“Why, apart from it being much-repeated right-wing dogma?”
I lived through the 70's.
I was in the power cuts , the forced closure of tv at 1030 thanks to the strikes , strikes by power workers , strikes by miners , and the ITV strike was also a last straw for me too after years of little strikes at ITV and BBC .
Top of the Pops and other programmes disrupted because the lighting people walked out and nobody else was allowed to go near their work - strikes because the personnel wanted more money simply because tv was being made in colour instead of B&W.
Blank pages in newspapers because the unions didn't like the editorial content so refused to print it ... I could go on.
The tv industry was only one example of many and the UK population were sick and tired of union stupidity by the late 70's which is why Thatcher was voted in instead of the then union lapdog that was the Labour party.
It was why few complained about Thatchers new laws regarding strikes . It was why New Labour didn't feel they needed to change any of them either.
For their initial needs unions were a good idea but through the 60's and 70's they held too much power and were always willing to strike at the drop of a hat which is why an ever increasing section of the country realised they had almost outlived their usefulness.
It took a leader with the guts of Thatcher to stand up to the unions and give them what they deserved after decades of disruption - and that was unemployment.
Off topic a bit - but even before Scargill became NUM leader it was known he wanted to fight the Government so it was no surprise when the strike began ( without a ballot IIRC) and the only sad thing about the miners strike was that so many were so stupid for so long to allow a single power hungry man to not only help the Government to speed up its planned downsizing of the industry but also enable them to do it on the cheap without paying redundancy as the miners who went on strike all got sacked
Originally Posted by Caxton:
“Indeed, Eddie Shah put an end to the print unions that had held the industry to ransom far too many time. The print union workers were by any standards extremely well paid especially for the amount of actual output they did per worker.”
Wasn't it Murdoch who smashed the print unions when he wanted to move The Sun to Wapping ?
That was an ongoing dispute but in true Thatcher style Murdoch carried on regardless and the unions lost out again
Originally Posted by lotrjw:
“it does seem we have some right wing posters in this thread who just want to sing Thatchers praises! I did think there was more to it than what some people were making out! ”
Originally Posted by Dan's Dad:
“Are you perhaps referring to this exchange
Maybe 'majorgart' could explain his remarks, especially with regard to the representation of bullied and harassed staff who relied upon their
accredited Trade Union representatives to mediate in and resolve the less than pleasant work-place environment in which they found themselves.
The role of an active Trade Unionist bears little relationship to that portrayed by the right-wing gutter press.
The BBC recently published a report on bullying, the matters reported upon where routinely dealt with, in decades gone by, through everyday union - management liaison
those who are proud of Thatcher's weakening of the Trade Union movement could well think about one of the reasons that the Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain has become openly known as the 'nasty party'.”
I was in a trade union for 17 years so I know what they could be like and most union reps seem to be there for the same reason as many others in positions of power - to feather their own nest.
Most of the union reps I had went onto become management in the company.
As you say , the unions do have their uses but they were going way beyond their remit in the 60's and 70's and were joining in meetings about the running of companies .