The Winter of Discontent: When Workers Could Take No More

When Workers Could Take No More

IT IS now a quarter of a century since Margaret
Thatcher’s Tory Party won the general election on 3 May 1979. 
Then and now,
right-wingers in the Labour Party blamed the defeat on the so-called ‘Winter
of Discontent’, which saw workers smash through the 1974-79 Labour
government’s pay policy.
KEVIN PARSLOW explains what really happened in the
winter of 1978-79.

ON 28 March 1979, the Labour government of Prime
Minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote in a House of Commons
motion of no confidence. Already in a minority, all the opposition parties
voted against them and the government’s time was up. In the subsequent
general election, the Tories led by Thatcher gained an overall majority of
44.

Some, mainly the right wing of the Labour Party and
trade unions, joined capitalist commentators in blaming the ‘winter of
discontent’ for Labour’s defeat, believing voters took fright at trade union
power. In reality, many workers sat at home, disgusted with the Labour
government’s policies and particularly those of wage restraint that
benefited nobody except the bosses and the rich.

It could have been different. When Tory Prime Minister
Edward Heath called a general election during the 1974 miners’ strike on the
theme of "Who rules Britain?" voters said, "You don’t!"
Labour, then led by Harold Wilson, was elected as a minority, which they
extended to a small majority in October 1974.

There was enthusiasm for socialist policies in Labour’s
manifestoes, such as nationalisation of the aerospace and shipbuilding
industries, an end to pay beds in the NHS and more.

But the government stayed within the confines of the
capitalist system and the increasingly sickly British economy. Chancellor of
the Exchequer Denis Healey, having promised to "make the pips
squeak" of the rich with a wealth tax, was confronted with a big
business investment strike, inflation of nearly 25%, and rising
unemployment.

As the 1976 Labour Party conference approached, Healey
went cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for a loan. This was
conditional on savage cuts in public expenditure and the Chancellor was
howled down at the conference. The government had put its fate firmly in the
hands of international capitalism.

Labour’s wage restraint

WORKERS HAD expected more from Labour’s government,
having struggled mightily against Heath’s anti-working class policies.
Workers hadn’t fought hard to get capitalist policies from what they
considered then as their government.

But some of the same leaders who had been forced to lead
the mighty struggles of the early 1970s, such as Hugh Scanlon of the
engineering workers union AUEW and Jack Jones of the TGWU, helped prop up
the Labour government by acquiescing to its pro-big business policies.

After all, wasn’t the alternative worse? The Tories had
booted out Heath and elected Thatcher as their leader. She was bent on
revenge against the trade unions and proposed vicious anti-working class
policies. But many union leaders believed the only way to prevent her ascent
to power was to support the Labour government, led since May 1976 by
Callaghan, in whatever it did.

The Social Contract was used as a cover for wage
restraint. From September 1975, union leaders agreed to a voluntary £6 a
week limit to wage rises; in 1976, things got tougher for workers, with
‘Phase 2’ a 4.5% norm, with a £4 per week maximum; and then ‘Stage 3’ in
1977 limited increases to 10%.

Workers were more loyal to Labour than they are now. The
government was far more susceptible to pressure through the trade unions and
constituencies. The ranks of the party were fighting for socialist policies,
and for party democracy to ensure MPs carried them out. But the union
leaders’ acceptance of the pay norms confused and demoralised workers.

Labour lost by-elections in what should have been safe
seats, and made a pact with the Liberals to stay in power. This, of course,
ensured no return to any form of socialist policies.

The government got a warning in the winter of 1977-78,
when firefighters took strike action for a 30% wage increase. They were out
for ten weeks, without strike pay or, scandalously, any official support
from the TUC. They settled for 10% but also a promise of cuts in hours and
new shift systems, which would improve their conditions. They had not won
decisively but had shown what strike action could achieve.

Incredibly, ignoring the anger developing from below,
the government pressed on for a ‘Stage 4’. Wage increases would be limited
to 5% in 1978-79! Even the Inland Revenue could not hide the truth about who
prospered from wage restraint. The share of the nation’s wealth owned by the
richest 1% had risen from 22.5% in 1974 to 24.9% in 1976; the top half’s
share had gone up to 94.4% from 92.9% over the same period.

Meanwhile, the poorest half of the population had seen
their share fall from 7.1% to 5.6%! So much for a "fundamental and
irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working
people and their families", as promised in Labour’s election manifesto
of October 1974!

Workers show strength

WORKERS HAD had enough. Trade union leaders felt the
ground shifting under their feet. Trade unionists felt their feet moving out
of the workplaces. In September 1978, in response to their employer’s 5%
offer, 57,000 Ford workers spontaneously walked out of their factories!

They knew Ford had made £270 million profits the
previous year and could afford a decent pay rise. They didn’t go back for
nine weeks, until accepting an offer amounting to 9.5% on basic pay, plus 2%
on holidays and 5% on attendance allowances. The government’s flagship pay
policy had been hit below the water line!

Callaghan baulked from calling a general election in the
autumn, with Labour just ahead in the opinion polls. But the Ford victory
opened the floodgates. A motion moved by Militant supporter Terry Duffy of
Liverpool Wavertree Constituency Labour Party at party conference pulled the
trade unions behind it, and was passed. Labour’s Conference opposed the
Labour government’s pay restraint!

Car workers were often portrayed by the bosses’ press as
being well paid. Large sections weren’t. But as the Ford workers settled in
November, low-paid bakery workers began a strike against the big monopolies
of the Bakers Federation that lasted for six weeks until the New Year.

They achieved an increase of £6 a week (on basic wages
of just £42), representing a 14.4% rise. However, the bosses wrung out
concessions from the union on workplace organisation and conditions.

ASLEF train drivers struck. Lorry drivers took strike
action in the New Year. Tories and their press fulminated against the power
of this section of the working class, who dared to decide what could be
moved as "emergency supplies" and what couldn’t.

Thatcher screeched in Parliament: "Now we find that
the place is practically being run by strikers’ committees… They are
‘allowing’ access to food. They are ‘allowing’ certain lorries to go
through… They have no right to prevent [lorries] from going through."

The Daily Express ranted about "The Rule of
Fear" and called for "excessive union power to be curbed".
Scandalously, the TUC leaders buckled under the pressure and recommended
that ‘secondary picketing’ of workplaces other than a striker’s own, should
be discouraged. This gave the green light to Tory anti-union laws. Lorry
drivers eventually settled for £65 for a 40-hour week, amounting to a 21%
increase.

Low-paid strike

PUBLIC SECTOR workers then launched their campaign.
Often called the "dirty jobs strike", it comprised low-paid
workers in local authorities, the NHS, the water industry, ambulance workers
and other public sector groups. Their claim was for a modest £60 a week for
35 hours. This was still only two-thirds of the average industrial wage.

Alan Fisher, then general secretary of NUPE, wrote an
article on the front page of Militant entitled "Wipe out poverty wages
now".

Following a demonstration of 80,000 in London (on a
Monday!), members of the TGWU, NUPE, COHSE and GMWU took action across the
country. It spread like wildfire as workers galvanised around demands that
were worth fighting for.

The press spat out their venom: the London Evening
Standard had a headline "Plagued by NUPE’s rats"; the Birmingham
Evening Mail, "A four-letter word, NUPE". But most people believed
that low-paid workers deserved a decent wage.

Despite massive police intimidation and the vitriol of
the Tories and their press hirelings, workers remained solid. Employers were
forced to offer a 9% increase and the promise of a "comparability
study". This still brought the basic wage for many workers to only
£42.40 for 40 hours!

NUPE’s negotiators and Alan Fisher accepted it but the
national executive rejected it. This confused the membership: in subsequent
ballots, local authority workers in NUPE accepted their offer by a 6 to 4
majority but NHS ancillary workers and ambulance workers rejected it by 4-1
and 7-1 respectively!

The confusion allowed the national committees to settle
the dispute and the "dirty jobs strike" was over. But the strike
was a step forward for hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers who had
taken action for the first time.

Civil servants then took action for their claim, which
again broke the pay guidelines as it was settled just before the general
election. But Labour could not be saved, roundly defeated by Thatcher’s
Tories. Unfortunately, the TUC leaders were found wanting in attempting to
counter Thatcher’s pro-big business policies and attacks on union rights.

In 1979, 12 million workers were organised into trade
unions. If they had leaders prepared to fight for socialist policies,
history would have been different. Instead, we have to learn the lessons of
this battle, and the course of history since, in order to rebuild the trade
unions as fighting organisations.

The "Winter of Discontent" showed that when
workers can take no more, they will struggle, and struggle hard. Days like
these will come again, and socialists have to be prepared to ensure a better
outcome than in 1979.


Who’s Who

Militant – not only a weekly paper and forerunner of the socialist but a Marxist tendency inside the Labour Party in the ’70s and forerunner of the Socialist Party.

TGWU – Transport and General Workers’ Union

NUPE (National Union of Public Employees) and COHSE (Confederation of Health Service Employees) are both now part of UNISON.

GMWU – General and Municipal Workers’ Union, now the largest part of GMB.