Sunak should learn how Britain’s unions were f inally tamed

MOST of us thought that the age of strikes was over, that the ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1978-79 was a remote memory, never to be repeated.

The union reforms of the Thatcher government, subtle and cunning, seemed to have taken power away from strike-happy militants by demanding proper secret ballots before industrial action. And the undoubted meddling of the Moscow-financed Communist Party in union affairs ended when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Some other things changed too. We work in different ways and in different kinds of workplace. The giant unionised industries which used to sustain militancy have mostly disappeared. Where now are British Leyland, the British Steel Corporation and the Coal Board?

One of the last of these monsters to survive, the railways, has been broken up into smaller units – a move many once foolishly believed would put an end to train strikes.

Anything but. The Post Office has lost its monopoly and, even if it hadn’t, we now have alternatives to letter-writing which simply didn’t exist in the 1970s.

Many union members now have mortgages and cannot afford to walk out indefinitely, as their forerunners used to, so the strikes come and go in a few days, but are still damaging.

Those who recall the 1970s and 1980s will recognise one thing which is just as bad and corrosive now as it was then.

This is the plague of inflation, eating away at the real value of wages and salaries, pensions and savings. If the Government cannot get the cost of living under control, those groups who have the power to demand higher wages through collective action will continue to do so.

Those who lack such power will just have to take what they can get. This is deeply unfair, as well as hurting the economy. But the Government cannot get a grip on it unless it can limit the effect of strikes, so confronting those groups who can do the most damage to the economy and society.

It is tempting to try to ban certain workers from striking, but this is easier in theory than in practice. Both Labour and Tory governments in the 1960s and 1970s came quite badly unstuck when they attempted to bring the law into industrial relations.

But there must be action. This pestilence of strikes shackles the economy, makes life miserable and, worst of all, endangers life and health. It has gone on too long and spread too far. It must be ended.

The public, and small business, feel under siege, with travel once again being strangled just as we thought we were recovering from the Covid restrictions. The Border Force plans for Christmas strikes are rank opportunism, requiring amazing callousness by those involved, casually wrecking the treasured holiday plans of millions.

Just because a group of workers have such power, it does not mean they are entitled to use it. There is arrogance and selfishness here that needs to be confronted and overcome for the sake of the public good. But above all, everyone is dismayed by the prospect of strikes by ambulance workers and nurses.

It is impossible for such people to withdraw their labour without someone being hurt, and it is idle to pretend otherwise.

There is certainly a strong argument for strike bans in such cases, but they need to be designed to be effective.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak needs to show, preferably in the next few days, that he understands public discontent. And in doing so he can learn most of all from the Thatcher government of 1979 to 1990, which eventually got both union militancy and inflation under control, with a mixture of cunning and firmness, carrot and stick.