The power dispute of 1964 was an
industrial action
Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike action, strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay a ...
by
electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions o ...
workers in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
that raised fears of
power cut
A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
There are many causes of power failures in an electricity ...
s which were ultimately averted through
negotiation
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties to reach the desired outcome regarding one or more issues of conflict. It is an interaction between entities who aspire to agree on matters of mutual interest. The agreement c ...
with the employers.
Unions representing 128,000 manual workers demanded:
*Reduction in
working time
Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week.
Many countries regulate the work week by law, s ...
from a 42- to 40-hour week;
*An increase in annual paid holiday from two to three weeks;
*More long-service pay;
*Examination of pay rates for
craftsmen
Craftsman may refer to:
A profession
*Artisan, a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative
* Master craftsman, an artisan who has achieved such a standard that he may establish his own workshop and take ...
and their mates.
— threatening an
overtime ban
Overtime bans are a type of strike in which workers refuse to engage in overtime work, being any work that falls outside of contracted hours. They do this to leverage their employer into negotiating various working conditions. Often organised in u ...
and
work-to-rule
Work-to-rule (also known as an Italian strike, in Italian: ''Sciopero bianco'', or Slowdown in US usag is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their contract or job, and strictly follow time-cons ...
if the demands were not met. Their employers, represented by the
Electricity Council The Electricity Council was a governmental body set up in 1958 to oversee the electricity supply industry in England and Wales.
The council was established on 1 January 1958 to assume the coordinating and policy-making functions of the Central El ...
, rejected the demands claiming that a three-year pay agreement had been put in place the previous year.
The unions involved were:
*
Amalgamated Engineering Union
The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major United Kingdom, British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992.
History
...
;
*
Electrical Trades Union;
*
;
*
National Union of General and Municipal Workers
The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...
; and
*
Transport and General Workers Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...
.
The unions were under pressure to settle from the
Labour Party, and were called to talks at
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
with deputy party leader
George Brown George Brown may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter
* George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist
* George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor
* G ...
and
shadow Chancellor
The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliamentary system is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who is responsible for shadowing the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The title is given at the gift of the Leader of the Opposition and ...
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...
who feared for the impact a dispute would have on the party's prospects in the
1964 United Kingdom general election
The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on 15 October 1964, five years after the previous election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party, first led by Winston Churchill, had regained power. It resulted in the Conservatives, ...
. Talks broke down on 19 March and it was feared that supply disruptions would follow the industrial action. Further talks on 25 March failed. There were
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
ary clashes between Labour Party leader
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
and
Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...
Joseph Godber
Joseph Bradshaw Godber, Baron Godber of Willington, (17 March 1914 – 25 August 1980) was a British Conservative Party politician and cabinet minister.
Background
Godber was educated at Bedford School, between 1922 and 1931, and became a n ...
.
On 31 March, Godber appointed
Lord Justice Pearson to chair a
court of inquiry into the dispute. The inquiry reported on 15 May and found fault on both sides. The employers had been guilty of "slowness and lack of vigour" in addressing the workers' concerns, while the workers had acted "too hastily" in breaking the three-year agreement which already included a mechanism for negotiation on "status proposals". However, the inquiry recognised that the workers felt "disappointed, frustrated and exasperated". Some felt that the report contained "more platitudes than recommendations" and it suggested no compromise, exhorting the parties to renewed efforts under the existing agreement.
On 11 June, the employers conceded a pay rise that cost the industry an estimated £5 million annually (£64 million at 2003 prices) in return for improvements in efficiency, and agreed to negotiate on the remaining issues. Negotiations again broke down on 27 November and unions announces that industrial action would begin and that they would start
ballot
A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16t ...
ing for a
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
.
The dispute was called off on 30 November when the employers offered that excess hours worked would be compensated in cash if time-off ''in lieu'' was not taken within three months. The wage claim was
arbitrated by the
Industrial Court
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
.
References
{{reflist
1964 labor disputes and strikes
1964 in the United Kingdom
Labour disputes in the United Kingdom