Facing Up to Thatcherism The History of NALGO 1979-93

by Ironside, Michael; Seifert, Roger

• ISBN13: 9780199240753
• ISBN10: 0199240752
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Throughout the 1980s Mrs Thatcher dominated political life in the UK and Thatcherism became the shorthand for a series of political initiatives all over the world. Most accounts of these years have concentrated on the economics of free markets and privatization. This book takes a differentstance through a detailed analysis of the responses of NALGO (The National and Local Government Officers Association) members, activists, leaders, and officials to the government's public sector reform and restructuring programme. Employees in health, local government, and education faced cuts in funding, compulsory competitive tendering, internal markets, and new management practices associated with HRM and TQM. Others in the gas, water, electricity, and transport industries faced wholesale privatization. This unique account of the period written from the evidence and perspective of those involved will be an important source for researchers, teachers, and practitioners in politics, industrial relations, public administration, and management concerned with the events and lessons of the 1980s.

Author Biography

Roger Seifert read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University before taking an M.Sc. in Economics and later a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics. He worked for Incomes Data Service before joining Keele University where he is now Professor of Industrial Relations. Mike Ironside read Mechanical Engineering at Aston University and then became a local government officer and a trade union activist. He took an MA in Industrial Relations and worked as a research officer for a trade union before joining Keele University as a lecturer in 1990.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	xvi
List of Figures	xvii
List of Tables	xviii
Abbreviations	xx
NALGO---What Kind of Trade Union?	1	(34)
The Context---Global Neo-Liberalism	6	(3)
The Management of Labour: Markets, Processes, and Ideologies	9	(5)
Trade Unionism: Methods, Structures, and Organization	14	(13)
NALGO is a Trade Union and All NALGO Members are Trade Unionists	27	(8)
NALGO: 1905--1978	35	(43)
Sixty Years of Development, 1905-1965	36	(7)
National Collective Bargaining and Industrial Action, 1965-1978	43	(5)
NALGO's World c.1978	48	(7)
What NALGO did Next	55	(8)
Appendix	63	(15)
The Advent of Thatcherism	78	(39)
The Fall of the Labour Government and the Winter of Discontent	79	(6)
NALGO and the Social Workers' Strike of 1978-9	82	(3)
The Conservatives are Coming	85	(3)
The Monetarists Bare their Teeth	88	(4)
Pay Bargaining---Business as Usual	92	(10)
NALGO and the Local-Government Comparability Dispute, 1980	98	(4)
Fight the Cuts! Defend the Union!	102	(4)
NALGO Gets Political	106	(3)
Building Unity and Common Cause	109	(4)
Concluding Remarks	113	(2)
Appendix	115	(2)
The Squeeze Tightens	117	(46)
The Political Economy of Thatcherism---Defiance and Despair	118	(4)
Attacks on Local Government	122	(7)
NALGO and the Penwith Strike---the Dismissal of Alec Maund	127	(2)
Privatization and Efficiency: The Terrible Twins	129	(7)
NALGO Policy and Practice	136	(13)
The NALGO Steward System	145	(4)
Collective Bargaining and Local Disputes	149	(8)
Concluding Remarks	157	(3)
Appendix	160	(3)
Thatcherites versus the Trade-Union Movement	163	(41)
The Politics of Defeat	164	(11)
NALGO and the Anti-Union Laws	165	(6)
NALGO and the 1984-5 Miners' Strike	171	(4)
The Right, the Wrong, and the Left in NALGO	175	(7)
NALGO's Defence of Muhammad Idrish	180	(2)
Collective Bargaining---the Beat Goes On	182	(8)
Facing up to the Conservative Counter-Revolution	190	(8)
Concluding Remarks	198	(2)
Appendix	200	(4)
Privatization and the Retreat from National Bargaining	204	(38)
The March of the Marketeers	205	(3)
Pragmatism in the Face of the Enemy	208	(10)
NALGO and the Fight for Equal Rights	210	(5)
NALGO and the Politics of Campaigns---Getting the Union Message Across	215	(3)
Against Deregulation and Privatization, for Making People Matter	218	(6)
Settling for the Going Rate Nationally, Fighting Back Locally	224	(12)
NALGO and Violence at Work---a Health and Safety Issue	233	(3)
Concluding Remarks	236	(2)
Appendix	238	(4)
Storms---Financial, Climatic, and Industrial	242	(48)
Still Losing Ground	243	(5)
Solidarity: The Friends Within	248	(8)
NALGO in the TUC	251	(5)
Deregulation and Management Reforms	256	(13)
The Last Throw of the National Pay Bargaining Dice?	269	(13)
NALGO and the Local Government Strike 1989	279	(3)
Concluding Remarks	282	(2)
Appendix	284	(6)
Markets, Managers, and the Merger	290	(57)
A New Prime Minister, the Same Old Song	291	(4)
Movements---for Merger, Mandela, and Equality; against Poll Tax and Anti-Union Laws	295	(18)
NALGO and Opposition to the Poll Tax	297	(4)
NALGO and the Anti-Apartheid Movement	301	(12)
Labour Management and the Markets	313	(9)
Reports of the Death of Collective Bargaining---Greatly Exaggerated	322	(19)
NALGO and the Regrading Claims of Medical Secretaries	334	(7)
Concluding Remarks	341	(2)
Appendix	343	(4)
NALGO'S Last Year	347	(36)
The Tories---Five More Years!	347	(3)
Campaigning, Merging, and Holding the Line	350	(9)
Recession, Redundancies, and Falling Relative Pay	359	(20)
Concluding Remarks	379	(2)
Appendix	381	(2)
In Unison	383	(10)
The Cold Logic for Merger	383	(5)
The Dialectics of Exploitation---Losing Control and Controlling Loss	388	(4)
Conclusion	392	(1)
Bibliography	393	(18)
Index	411