Strike action and labout relations

Question 1

What is a trade union?

Answer 1

An organisation which campaigns for the interests (hours of work, wages) of the workers in a certain industry or area of work.
eg. Miners Trade Union known as National Union of Miners

Question 2

What does labour relations mean?

Answer 2

The ways that managers and workers negotiate with each other about wages, hours of work.

Question 3

Why were labour relations a problem at this time?

Answer 3

Half of all male workers and a quarter of female workers belonged to a union, unions saw their role as getting the best possible pay and working conditions for their members.

Local trade union officials - ‘shop stewards’ could call a strike at short notice - this stops anything from being made (production). Managers failed to build better working conditions.

Question 4

What were the improvements in labour relations?

Answer 4

The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act - first of many acts that have successfully improved working conditions.

Question 5

How did economic problems make labour/industrial relations even worse?

Answer 5

1. Inflation - prices continued to rise - trade unions wanted wages rises, this lead to more strikes.
2. Trade unions - higher wages increased the cost of British products - no one wanted to buy the products at home or abroad
3. Decline in British industry - overtaken by other countries, loss of empire meant there was more competition
4. Less things being made (fall in production) leads to prices increases and job losses.

Question 6

Explain why the Miners strike in 1972?

Answer 6

1. Power of the trade union - National Union of Miners (NUM) - most powerful union with 300,000 members.
   - In 1971 - demanded a 33% pay increase for miners as it was a dangerous job - needed to be well paid.
2. Inflation - pay increase needed because prices were rising
   - Government owned coal mines and had to pay the miners’ wages

Question 7

What happened during the Miners strike of 1972?

Answer 7

Groups of miners stopped the coal supplies from being delivered to the power stations by picketing the gates. (meant standing by power station, not letting anything pass through).

Question 8

What effect did the Miners strike of 1972 have?

Answer 8

1. Causing power shortages since 75% of electricity came from coal stations.
2. Government agreed to give miners a 27% pay increase.

Question 9

What was the oil crisis of 1973?

Answer 9

War between Israel and Arab nations results in the Yom Kippur war - 1973.
USA supported Israel so Arab oil producing nations raised the price of oil by 70%!
Oil prices were 400% higher than they had been before the start of the crisis.

Question 10

Explain the impact of the oil crisis on Britain.

Answer 10

Incredibly negative - soaring oil prices made existing problems MUCH worse:

1. Prices of good rose higher - anything made using oil rose in price, increased demand for goods made from natural materials eg wood which caused those prices to rise too!
2. Miners wanted more money - rising oil = rising coal since it was main alternative source of fuel. Miners went on strike.
3. More power shortages - full miners strike - government had to impose three day weeks on Britain.

Question 11

What happened during the miners strike of 1974?

Answer 11

Miners began an overtime ban - slashed oil production by more than 50%.
1974 - miners called an all out strike.

Question 12

What was the three day week?

Answer 12

Conservative PM Edward Heath declared a state of emergency and ordered a three day week - 1974, lasted for two months.

Question 13

What did the three day week mean?

Answer 13

Businesses were only allowed to use electricity on 3 days.
Electricity was not to be used for heating offices, shops or leisure venues.
BBC and ITV had to stop broadcasting at 10.30pm.
Government urged the public to SoS - Switch off Something

Question 14

Why did the three day week take place?

Answer 14

Due to the miners strike, 1972 and oil crisis 1973.

Question 15

What was the impact of the three day week?

Answer 15

15 - 20% of production was lost due to three day weeks.
Heath, 1974 - called early election - asked voters to decide ‘who governs Britain’ - were voters on side of government or unions?
For most voters - saw main cause of strikes as being about inflation rather than unions.
Heath lost.
Harold Wilson came back as PM and gave miners 32% pay rise.

Question 16

How did Wilson improve the economy and control inflation in the late 70s?

Answer 16

Pay rises were capped at 5% in order to control inflation. Reduced inflation to 8% in 1978 compared to 26% in 1975.

Question 17

What did the cap in prices in the late 70s lead to?

Answer 17

More strikes - the cap was enforced on public sector rather than private sector.
Lorry drivers went on strike in January 1979 this had an immediate impact on Britain. Across the country supplies of food and fuel were cut - causing people to panic buy.
Petrol had to be rationed at petrol stations.
More public sector workers 1.5 million in total.

Question 18

What were the effects of the strikes in the 70s?

Answer 18

Some hospitals closed for everything except emergencies, rubbish collections stopped and rubbish piled up in streets.
In some areas of country dead went unburied and gravediggers went on strike.

Question 19

What was the impact of the Winter of Discontent?

Answer 19

Nearly 30 million working days had been lost to strikes in 1979.
84% of the nation thought that trade unions had become too powerful.
At the next election Callaghan lost the election to the Conservatives, and Thatcher became PM.