Chapter 15 (4) Flashcards
Employment Act of 1980
-Outlawed picketing and increased the rights of employees who refused to join unions
-Government money was made available to encourage unions to hold secret ballots
Employment Act of 1982
-Restricted sympathy strikes
-Allowed closed shops only if a ballot showed 85% support
-Anyone who was sacked as a result of not joining a strike was entitled to high levels of compensation
Trade Union Act 1984
-Required unions to hold secret ballots of their members before launching industrial action
Success of Legislation
Number of working days lost to strikes decreased
- 29.5 million in 1979
-11.9 million in 1980
- 4.2 million 1981
- 1.9 million in 1990
Other successes with Thatcher’s industrial relations
-Unemployment deterred many from striking as well as this fear of replacement within the workplace
-Union membership continued to fall which made strike movements more difficult to mobilise and spread
Battle of Orgreave
-18/6/84
-8000 miners vs 6000 police
-51 picketers and 72 police were injured
-BBC misrepresented the events to make the miners seem more dangerous and in the wrong in which they later apologised for the advertising
-Horses were sent on the protesters as they threw stones
-A miner was attacked to the point that the truncheon broke even though he was already on the floor
-95 miners arrested
-55 charged with riot which has a maximum sentence of life
-Trial of miners collapsed when the police were found to have falsified evidence
-No police officers were ever sanctioned but South Yorkshire police payed £425,000 in compensation
Reasons for Strikes
-Pit closure programme announced on the 1st March 1984
-NCB was facing a loss of £250million between 1983/84
-20 uneconomic pits were to be closed resulting in 20,000 jobs lost
-Scargill believed the government would shut down more than they proposed
NUM/ Scargills tactics
-Used strikes illegally as he didn’t call a full ballot
-Initially used lots of regional strikes
-Proposed as anti establishment (Government and police)
-Used flying pickets
-Miners who didn’t strike were ostracised in the communities and titled Scabs
-Women played a huge role in supporting the strikes as they came together to make food for the community
Government tactics
-Refused to pay state benefits which caused many families to fall into poverty
-Could fine and seize assets off of those striking without a ballot
-Harnessed the power and physicality of the police
-Used the media to spread rumours of corruption within the NUM
