Union Strengths And Weaknesses

As a result of government actions in the period 1979 - 1987, influence of unions was permanently altered; with Thatcher’s manifesto promise to curb union power a priority, due to the fact that disputes caused work stoppages which were used “as a weapon of first rather than last resort”. The blame was laid upon “militant” pro-union legislation enacted by the Labour Party which allowed wage bargaining, leading to British companies becoming less competitive. Although there were weaknesses in the way the Conservative government executed its strategy to reduce union dominance, the fact remains that government was ultimately successful in handling industrial disputes of this time due to both strong leadership and the efficiency of ministers.

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Additionally, Thatcher was not always ruthless when dealing with trade unions, some may argue that only in her second and third terms was the government successful in handling industrial disputes. The idea that in her first term, Thatcher was not as successful in dealing with disputes in industry can be supported by the fact that in 1981 there was a government ‘climb-down’ where Thatcher gave in to unions. In 1981, miners resisted a pit closure program which Thatcher was pushing because of the high costs to the exchequer of coal mines as there was a decline in coal marketability (coal only made up 20% of Britain’s energy mix at the time.) Thatcher had to give in; coal stocks were not ready, neither was the legislation nor the organisation of the police force- the politicisation of the police force was key in Thatcher’s handling of strike action (demonstrated in 1984) which became extremely controversial. This indicates the unsuccessful nature of Thatcher’s first term in managing industrial

This allowed Scargill to monopolise opposition and make moves to prevent Thatcher’s aims, despite the fact they failed due to lacking organisation and opposition even within the NUM itself. For example, there were many moderates in the NUM who, if taking part in a ballot would not have favoured strike action as Scargill’s sincere Marxism and rash attitude alienated many members; therefore, it was perhaps the failure of the unions that contributed to Thatcher’s success in industrial disputes combined with her conviction, but Kinnock’s detrimental error was certainly a weak point of the