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With the public sector in the frontline, St
a recent book on the history of NUPE,
the public.
recent book
phen Smellie reviews
now part of UNISON.
A century of service:
an illustrated history of the
National Union of
Public Employees,
1889-1993
by Bob Fryer and
Steve Williams
Published by Lawrence and
Wishart, 1993.
Stephen Smellie is the
secretary of UNISON
Hamilton No.1 general
branch, formerly the NUPE
Hamilton local authority
branch.
amongst low paid workers.
One feature from its early days was its reliance upon paid officials to build the organisation and lead negotiations. The view was that skilied professional officials were necessary for claims pursued through negotiation and lobbying. The strike weapon was held not so much in reserve but in cold storage. This echoes the approach of the union leadership in the 1980s.
At last years' final conference NUPE's executive presented document summarising the policies of NUPE to take into UNISON. According to NUPE into UNISON the past 14 years left the union in the position of having to negotiate at local level, unable to organise national action, avoiding strike action at all costs and waiting for a Labour government: "The attack on public services... (challenged) old ways of doing things. It forced us to adapt, to devise new strategies. The nature of privatisation and the outcome of the government approach made it difficult, if not impossible, to mount effective national industrial opposition... there would be no going back to the seventies"
This view, which Militant in NUPE consistently fought against, was wrong. The attack on public services, made by slashing jobs and conditions at local level, should have been met by NUPE and the other unions co-ordinating national action. Not
A history of
struggle
HEN IT COMES to war,
history is written by the
victorious. Trade union history is written, or at least commissioned, by the bureaucracies. As a National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) left activist I therefore approached this book, published to mark the end of NUPE as it merged with NALGO and COHSE to form UNISON, expecting a justification of the stance of the existing leadership.
Instead, what becomes clear is
failed to learn the lessons of the history of a union which represented, from its inception to its close, some of the lowest paid workers in Britain.
The union which became NUPE began as the 'Carmen and Roadmen's Union of the London parish of Camberwell' in 1889, partly inspired by the success of the newly formed dockers' union. The union grew gradually, reflecting the increasing numbers employed in public services as local authorities took on more
that the current leadership has
powers, and
STANL
FOR
PATIENI
CAREO
NUPE members fight for the NHS.
the limited successes in improving wages.
Through a series of name changes, recruitment, splits and general secretaries absconding with the money, the union spread out from its London base. In 1928 the National Union of Corporation Workers became NUPE, with 12,500 members.
In common with all unions in this period it faced difficulties due to the bosses onslaught after the 1926 general strike, but it survived by conti nual recruitment
26 • NUPE
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TUL (LAUGHTER Start the ght NOW, Ex-NUPE, now UNISON leader Bickerstaff. only was the leadership's strategy wrong, it also went against the lessons of the history of NUPE itself.
Urns of thie ories, NDER THE TORY govern- 1960s public services, vastly expanded under the 1945 Labour government, came under attack. This led to a build-up of anger amongst the rank and file which was gradually reflected by the leadership.
The election of a Labour government in 1964, after 13 years of Tory rule, raised great expectations amongst both the rank file and the leadership. and Harold Wilson, the Labour prime minister, introduced a prices and incomes policy. NUPE supported the pay norm set, on the basis that within this policy low pay would be tackled. However, with the Labour government limiting itself to managing capitalism, an economic policy that had been hoped to lead to a major re-distribution of wealth became wage restraint. In 1966 a pay freeze was implemented.
NUPE opposed this and called for radical policies including a reduction in military spending and a minimum wage, policies which it continued to campaign for until the days of 'new realism' under the Kinnock Labour leadership.
The high expectations in the Labour government turned into frustration and anger. In 1969 the dam burst and London duststrike in men walked out on pursuit of a 15 shilling pay claim. Within ten days all dustmen in the city were out with other workers joining them. Membership exploded from 256,000 in 1968 to 693,000 just ten years later.
The union gave full support and the employers conceded in the face of the action spreading nationally. The settlement involved increases ranging from 15 shillings to £2 and were described in the union's journal as making "all previous rises look as old fashioned as a ha'penny piece".
The lessons were discussed throughout the union. Members and officials began to realise that the willingness of members to take action and the preparedness of the union to fully back them gave them a much stronger hand in negotiations.
The unions stepped up plans to develop an efficient shop stewards system. This would enable NUPE, according to former national publicity and research officer Bernard Dix, to "achieve the real partnership of modern militant trade unionism... winning real benefits for all local authority workers"
The 1969 strike changed the outlook of the union. The 1970s saw NUPE at the forefront of many battles with firstly Ted Heath's Tory government and then the Wilson/Callaghan Labour governments. Membership exploded from 256,000 in 1968 to 693,000 just ten years later. NUPE became known as a militant fighting union and attracted new layers of low paid workers, particularly part-time women workers, inspired by the struggles which the union led.
Compare this to the drop in membership from 710,000 in 1982 to 550,000 in 1992 following ten years of retreat and refusal to lead any national acagainst the Tory tion government's attacks.
In 1970 NUPE, along with the TGWU and the GMWU, entered a claim for 750,000 local authority manual workers demanding an increase of £2.15s with extra holidays and improved shift pay. The employers offered £1.45s. The Heath government piled on the pressure to reduce pay settlements and the unions embarked on the first national industrial dispute with the local authority employers. In September a rolling programme of strike activity began in London and spread throughout the country with Scotland joining in late October. It was over by the second week of November when an independent committee of inquiry recommended an improvement on the employers last offer which gave the workers an extra £2.10s a week, improved holidays and shift pay. Successful action had been achieved by being national in character with a determined leadership prepared to trust the members willingness to struggle NUPE • 27
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and the activists ability to organise at local level. A whole new layer of young militant shop stewards emerged which transformed the union, 50% of whom, at one stage, were women.
HEN THE HEATH gov-
Worment was wrecked by
its confrontation with the miners, the return of the Wilson Labour government raised the expectations of working people. Once again they were to be disappointed. From promising to 'squeeze the rich', Denis Healey ran to the IMF and launched the sharpest round of public sector cuts yet. Tony Crosland told Labour's conference that, in local government, 'the party's over'. This put NUPE on a headlong collision with the government.
Right-wing mythology tells how the unions and particularly NUPE brought down the government in the 'winter of discontent. Even today, 14 years later, some right wingers in the Labour Party refer to this period to justify their attempts to break the links with the unions.
NUPE takes into UNISON a
proud history.
The reality is somewhat different. The book explains step-by-step how the conflict of 1979 was created by the economic policies of the government from 1974 onwards. Labour's attempt to manage capitalism led it to try and control inflation by reducing public expenditure and wages.
NUPE, along with other unions, launched a massive campaign against the government's policies. In November 1976, 80,000 trade unionists lobbied parliament, many striking for the day to attend. A national steering committee against the cuts was established with NUPE in the lead. Local cuts were fought with demonstrations, ral-
28 NUPE
NUPE members campaign against low pay, 1979.
lies and strikes.
In 1978 the union launched its wage campaign for a 40% rise, noting the failure of council and NHS wages to keep pace with others. They were offered 5%. A one-day strike was called which quickly escalated across the country, with essential services being maintained by the unions. Despite a media smear campaign, the unions held firm from January 1979 through to March when an improved offer was accepted.
Labour went on to lose the 1979 general election and the unions were blamed. The responsibility for the defeat however lay with the Labour government who turned upon the poorest and weakest sections of the working class. Those workers, for the first time in history, organised and led by a determined leadership, refused just to take it and fought back. The lesson of the period was not that the unions were unpopular or too militant but that a Labour government must represent the interests of the working class and not those of the international money markets, industrialists and bankers.
After the defeat of Callaghan came Thatcher and the start of an onslaught against the public sector. The book explains the events of the early 1980s and emphasises the union leaders'
radical talk. But it does not explain why there was a failure to advance any major industrial campaign and why a reduction in membership of 200,000 from 1982 to 1992 was accepted by the union leaders as inevitable.
This section is, not surprisingly, the weakest. Within a few short years the lessons of the 1960s and 1970s were forgotten, although the rhetoric remained. Instead the methods of previous decades were re-instated. Negotiating improvements became, in the 1980s, negotiating cuts and 'rationalisations'. New Realism', particularly after the defeat of the miners strike, found NUPE's leaders playing a despicable role in the Liverpool council struggle; resorting to falsehoods to win votes at conferences to ensure motions calling for action were defeated; playing a leading role in the witchunt of Militant in the Labour Party, and assisting in the 'review of Labour Party policy which has led to the abandonment of even a pretence of socialism.
NUPE takes into UNISON a proud history, the best parts of which the leadership would like to pass over. Activists in UNISON should take the time to look at this book and determine that the history of struggle is carried on into the new union.
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