The Fifties

Abstract

While in 1941 the TUC favoured the extension of Order 1305, from 1946 the ETU, in 1947 the AEU, in 1948 the Bakers’ Union and from 1949 the NUJ advocated its abolition. The TUC of 1950 by a two-to-one majority favoured retention, but in February 1951 the General Council demanded ‘revocation’ and ‘the removal of all restrictions on strikes and lockouts’, in the new situation of inflation and prosecutions. The consequent substitution of Order 1376 (the Industrial Disputes Order), retaining a measure of compulsory arbitration, did not please all unionists (1). Bryn Roberts’s NUPE, composed of low-paid workers, inevitably favoured ‘a national wage policy’ (2, 3), as did others (4), but Frank Foulkes’s ETU was bitterly hostile (5, 6). Skirmishing over incomes restraint thus continued. Other politically oriented arguments also continued. After considerable trouble with some ‘left-wing’ trades councils (especially in London), the TUC issued a warning to the councils (7). Regular dock strikes, despite the attempts of the Dock Labour Board of 1947 to decasualise labour, raised much public protest (8) and led to attacks on Deakin’s vast TGWU.