Thatcher apologists always refer back to the Winter of Discontent and 'unions out of control' in the 1970's as a way of justifying her actions.....but no-one ever questions WHY the unions did what they did and most don't even know what the Winter of Discontent was all about. Most assume it was greedy union bosses flexing their muscles to earn unfair wages rises for their members.

I was only a kid throughout the 1970's, I didn't really know myself what went on, so I looked it up.

Harold Wilson's government tried to impose a 5% pay rise limit on not just public sector workers but private sector ones too, using a pact made with the unions to abandon collective bargaining powers, in an attempt to curb inflation.

Now inflation ran at 15-20% during that time, so those workers were effectively taking a 10-15% pay CUT year on year whilst shareholders and bosses in the private sector at least were reaping in the benefits of the inflation in prices. So much so that bosses at Ford risked the government's wrath and awarded a 15% pay rise to their workers (a pay rise they could clearly afford). So everyone else decided enough was enough and started pushing for higher pay awards of their own.

Its hardly 'union greed' when a working man fights and strikes just to maintain his existing standard of living, and even if it was, why was it never considered greedy of the private sector companies to keep on inflating prices (and profits) when the unions had agreed to the 5% cap ?

As always the story has two sides, but in revisionist, post Thatcher doctrine, the only side that is ever told (and sadly accepted by the majority) is the one that paints the unions as those at fault and out of control.