1-Challenge and Change to Workplace

Question 1

What were the changes in indsutry in interwar period

Answer 1

• Much of the traditional industry was still rooted in Victorian Britain.
• Iron ore and the coal industries in Scotland, south Wales and northern England were the key heavy
  industries.
• By the interwar period, they were outdated, suffered from underinvestment and could not compete
  with foreign competitors.
• The 1919 Sankey Commission recommended that government ownership of mines by continued
  after the war, yet mines where handed back to private ownership in 1921, wages soon fell.
• The aftermath of the Great War saw demand for textiles and shipbuilding fall as rivals stepped in to
  the gap which Britain had left in the Great War and never relinquished their industrial position.
• However, the interwar period saw the rise of modern industries, such as the motor industry and
  chemicals - these industries centred around the Midlands and the south east of England.
• There was also the growth of light engineering companies which produced consumer goods: These
  industries used modern manufacturing techniques - unionism was weaker in these industries and the wages were better.

Question 2

what was the impact of changes in industry in interwar years

Answer 2

• The older industries lost a third of their workforce - unemployment 3 million in 1932, Jarrow
• Those industries that made electrical appliances increased their workforce by 250%.
• The service industries boomed.
• The building industry expanded by 40%.

Question 3

1926 General Strike

Answer 3

• In March 1926, the Samuel Commission recommended radical restructuring of the coal industry, but also a pay cut for miners
• Miners rejected the proposals - ‘Not a minute off the day, not a penny off the pay’
• They called for TUC support in a strike
• TUC entered talks with the government, however on the 2nd May Baldwin called off talks and declared
  a state of emergency
• On 3rd May 3 million workers went on strike
• However, 9 days later the general strike was over and the miners were left to strike on their own for
  a further 6 months without success

Question 4

why did the 1926 General Strike fail

Answer 4

• Not all workers were ready for a strike and did not coordinate their efforts
• The government had been preparing for the strike since 1925 - thye had created the Organisation for
  the Maintenance of Supplies, a network of volunteers who stepped in to do essential jobs not done
  by striking workers
• Churchill was put in charge of the government newspaper - The British Gazette - which he used to
  turn public opinion against the strike, and made clear to the TUC that the government would not be
  held hostage to strike action
• The TUC limited violence during the strike - which made it easier for the government to handle
• The strike was expensive for the TUC - costing £4million of its £12.5 million strike fund
• A liberal politician offered the TUC an unofficial settlement - the Samuel Memorandum - promising
  and National Wage Board, wage subsidies and no wage cuts before the restructuring of mining. The TUC accepted this and called off the strike.

Led to Trade Disputes Act 1927- sympathetic strikes illegal - TUC abandoned general strikes. Membership sank to its lowest in 1932. Working class men began to look to** labour party for better soltuions**.

Question 5

what was the impact of the Great Depression on industrial relations

Answer 5

• unemployment rose to 3 million in 1932.
• Much of this was long term unemployment - in 1929 5% of unemployed had been jobless for over a year, by 1932 this had risen to 16.4%
• Mass unemployment led to a fall of union membership by almost 50% - from 8 million in 1922 to 4.5 million in 1932.
• Against this backdrop, workers in the traditional heavy industries tended to fight harder for their jobs and pay. This was against employers wanting to make cuts and improve productivity.
• In the middle of this the government tried to supply support for the unemployed, but did not have the resources to do this. Also, the government tended to side with the employer in trade disputes.
• By 1939, traditional heavy industries were in terminal decline and working conditions remained poverty stricken.

Question 6

Pattern of employment 1939-64

Answer 6

• WW2 lead to more employment opportunities like:Move towards full employment as Britain engaged in a ‘total war’
• More women in the workforce
• Better working condition; improved healthcare, longer hours but better wages
• Control of Employment Act - semi-skilled workers could take on skilled jobs
• Essential work order - forced people to do particular jobs, 8.5 million issued by government,
  made it difficult for workers to be fired, protected and defined essential jobs
• govs comitment to full employment led to record low fugures
• growth in white collar industry:
• people on average had a higher levels of income = demand for luxury goods and services = created more jobs
  -government increased spending on services like health care and ediction = creating public sector jobs
  -more difficult to mechanise = not lost to technological advances like blue collar jobs
• better education gave better mobility
• workers could enjoy incentives - cheap canteens and social culbs

Question 7

changes in industrial relations WW2

Answer 7

• strikes during war, over wages and hours
• Bevin TU member became Minister of Labour 1940
• promoted working relations and Bevin Boys - men conscripted to work in the coal mines between 1943 and 19448
• gov decalred its long term **responsibility for employment **
• inclusion of TU in government decision making bodies

Question 8

Changes in Industrial relations Attlee government

Answer 8

• Working with unions established as part of the consensus
• Key industries nationalised
• Trade unionist inclusion on the board of the nationalised Bank of England
• Trade Disputes Act of 1927 repealed - giving the unions more power and making
  Labour more reliant on union funding
• Conservatives industrial charter 1947 shows consensus views on cooperation with the
  unions and protecting labour rights

Question 9

changes in industrial relations 50s

Answer 9

• Full employment and high trade union membership
• Growth of prosperous trade union leader like Vic Feather and Jack Jones led to a
  distance between trade union members and their leaders
• There was a growth in power of shop stewards, who would call unofficial ‘wildcat’
  strikes
• They wanted a greater share in consumerism
• Deteriorating relationship between the Conservatives and the TUC
• The number of strikers between 1955-1964 was double that of 1945-1950
• Growing divide between the workers and the middle class

Question 10

Wilsons 1964-70 government
attitude towards unions

Answer 10

• Wilson projected image of an ‘ordinary bloke’ , often smoking a pipe, to attract union support,
• Wilson attempted to have a close relationship with the unions, wanted to talk over industrial
  disputes with “beer and sandwiches at Number Ten”
• Passed Trade Disputes Act in 1965 restored certain legal immunities for TU’s
• Barbara Castles 1969 ‘In place of strife’ proposed -
• secret ballots before strikes become compulsory
• a cooling off period of 90 days could be imposed at ministerial discretion o Fines be available for breaches of the law by union activists.
• However ‘In place of strife’ was so unpopular with the unions it was never implemented
  There was a National Seamen’s strike in 1966
• The Seamen effectively wanted a pay rise of 17%, which would break with the governments voluntary incomes policy
• The government opposes the strike, with Wilson even implying that the strikers are in league with the Communist party
• The strikers give up, but shows clear tension between gov and unions

Question 11

Heaths government 1970-74
attitudes towards black americans

Answer 11

– Selsdon man wanted to limit the power of the unions and refuse to prop up failing industries
– 1971 Industrial Relations Act:
* Placed limits of the rights to strike
* Insisted unions had to place themselves on a government register
* Established the National Industrial Relations Court to judge the legality of strike action
* The act failed because unions refused to comply - the unions simply refused to register and the TUC mobilised a massive campaign of non-cooperation.

Question 12

Wilson and Calaghan 1974-79
attitudes to trade unions

Answer 12

• Labour repealed the Industrial Relations Act and replaced it with a vague ‘Social Contract’ – a voluntary prices and wages control agreement.
• Callaghan was determined to stick to a 5% limit to pay increases in 1978

Question 13

wilson and calaghan
deteriorating relationships + winter of discontent

Answer 13

• 1978 a strike at Ford leads to a 17% raise for the workers - embarrassment for the government
• 3rd January oil tankers and lorry driver strike, tanker drivers quickly win a pay rise and return to work - the lorry driver hold out for another 6 weeks. During this time they refuse to deliver goods and picket ports to stop supplies reaching industry, shops and hospitals - in response people began to panic buy
• 22nd January strikes led to the ‘winter of discontent’
• 1.5 million public sector workers went on strike (they were protesting wage freezes - a condition of the IMF loan
• Almost all school shut, as well as museums, libraries and other public buildings
• Hospital staff went on strike and hospitals could only treat emergency patients
• Rubbish went uncollected, piling up on the streets (famous pictures of Leicester square filled with rubbish bags)
• In Liverpool, gravediggers strike and by end of Jan 225 corpses were in storage awaiting burial
• Nearly 30 million workings days had been lost to strikes by the end of 1979
• The government accepted defeat in Feb and allowed pay increases of 10-15%
  Tabloid coverage of the winter of discontent exaggerated the chaos caused by the strike and turned public opinion firmly against the unions - 84% of the nation thought that trade unions had become too powerful.
  Many now believed that the unions had to be stopped. Margaret Thatcher promised to tackle to union, and she won the 1979 election.