Margaret Thatcher Unions
It explains how british pm margaret thatcher got away with taming the english trade union movement.
Margaret thatcher unions. Most british unions are members of the tuc the trades union congress founded in 1867 or where appropriate the scottish trades union congress or the irish congress of trade unions which are the countrys. In early 1970 she told the finchley press that she would like to see a reversal of the permissive society. Thatcher made her first visit to the soviet union in the summer of 1969 as the opposition transport spokeswoman and in october delivered a speech celebrating her ten years in parliament.
One huge factor in this is the way the iron lady crushed the uks trade unions during her reign. Margaret thatcher was prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and is often credited with overseeing a period of great change in britain. I think it was the controlling of the unions and the closure of coal.
But nearly everyone knew that was impossible because the trade unions had record high levels of membership and they had faced down her three predecessors. Margaret thatcher was elected to the office of prime minister in 1979 because of the preceding winter of discontent. About 50 of all workers were members there was a robust shop stewards movement and delegate structures were bursting with life and energy.
The late margaret thatcher is an extremely polarizing figure in the united kingdom. Margaret thatcher was britains longest serving prime minister and the first woman to hold the office in that country. In the 1970s the british unions were thriving.
Consequently her priority from that moment was trade union reform.