Winter of Discontent

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Strikes began when 72,000 Ford workers "downed tools" and walked off the job, leaving 23 Ford factories across the country empty.

The phrase Winter of Discontent refers to the British winter of 1978-1979, when widespread strikes marked the largest stoppage of labour since the 1926 General Strike as the working classes and the Trade Unions rebelled against the socialist government incumbent at the time. The period was marked by food shortages, power cuts, household refuse uncollected, and even the dead were left unburied.

Origin of the phrase

"Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York" was written by Shakespeare in his play Richard III (1594). It actually means that the period of discontent or unhappiness is ending, winter marking the end of a cycle. The phrase was used to describe the social and industrial unrest of the 1978-79 winter by the political editor of the British national newspaper The Sun.

Background

The "discontent" of British workers had been building for several years; inflation had reached 26.9% in August 1975, and the incumbent Labour government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson introduced a "cap" on pay increases for workers at limits set by the government, and far below the rate of inflation. For workers earning under £8,500 ($17,000) a year the maximum pay increase could not exceed £6 ($12) per week. By 1978, inflation had almost halved, but the government refused to remove the caps, fixing the maximum pay increase at 5%. However, at the end of 1977, firefighters had gone on strike and, despite being forced back to work (the strike had ended violently, with the firefighters even attacking their own Union officials whom they felt had betrayed them), achieved a 10% increase, followed in early 1978 by further concessions from the government, giving them an increase in real terms of 20%. Furthermore, their salaries became index linked against inflation, a privilege which had previously only been accorded to the Army Chiefs, police and judges, as a compensation for not being allowed to strike. The firefighters had however still retained the right to strike. Told that their rises would still be capped at 5% the remainder of the already disgruntled workforce took notice of how the firefighters had been successful in "defeat" and began to see how weak the government had become when challenged by direct action.

In April 1976, Wilson had been replaced as Prime Minister by Labour's James Callaghan, and it was widely expected that he would call for a general election and the removal of the wage caps in September 1978 following the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference. Instead, he announced that there would be no general election and that the cap would remain for at least another year to allow the economy to stabilise. The same month, a pay increase for workers at Ford Motor Company was set by the company within the allotted 5% designated by the government but was rejected by the workers. A strike began when 15,000 Ford workers walked off the job on September 22 and by September 26 had been joined by 57,000 others, leaving 23 Ford factories unmanned.

The Ford deal

The strike by the Ford workers was unofficial, and had not been formally sanctioned by the workers' union, the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), however, given the determination of their members not to return to work, and the violence that had marked the previous year's firefighter's strike, the TGWU officially gave its support on 5 October. They demanded a 25% pay increase and a reduction to a 35 hour working week, and negotiations began with the management of Ford. On 22 November they accepted a 17% pay increase, with no reduction in working hours, and returned to work. The government were furious that Ford had breached the pay policy and attempted to impose sanctions on the company, but this was defeated in Parliament, with Callaghan only narrowly surviving a motion of confidence. Humiliated and further weakened, the government was now powerless to enforce the 5% cap, which would now be challenged by strikes in both the public and private sectors.