‘The Second Stalingrad’: The Road Haulage Strikes

Abstract

As the reality of the Ford workers’ successful breach of the incomes policy set in among those in the Labour government, so too did one of Britain's coldest winters on record. In January of 1979, the average temperature was -.04oC, making the winter of 1978–79 one of 50 coldest since records began. Blizzards that greeted New Year's revellers inspired the Guardian to proclaim ‘The Big Freeze Tightens Its Grip,’ while the Financial Times grimly reported the deaths of 23 people throughout the UK, France, and West Germany as a result of the ‘Arctic weather conditions.’ The harsh weather intensified pressure on the Labour government as strikes among lorry drivers came to fruition. In early January, hauliers took industrial action, rejecting the employers’ offer of a 15 per cent increase for one of 20 per cent. Since road haulage was now the ‘predominant mode of inland transportation,’ strikes in this industry had the potential to completely paralyse the nation. The potency of such industrial action was only matched by the dramatic images that spilled out from the media. Picketing drivers stopping lorries became vividly imprinted in the public imagination as headlines like the Economist 's cover screamed ‘Britain under Siege.’ Some of the most macabre scenes, such as piles of dead piglets and chickens, not only heightened the sense that the British public was personally victimized, but the scenes would become enmeshed in its ultimate mythologization. Unlike the Ford strike, which was in many ways confined to the industrial estates of Halewood and Dagenham, the lorry drivers’ strike could potentially affect everyone in Britain, making the strike appear more personal. Roy Hattersley, Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection in the Callaghan government, observed that the road haulage strike ‘was spreading the bad news throughout the country. Every town and village felt like they were affected by the Winter of Discontent.’ This was also a pivotal moment when Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party began to effectively tap into the widespread panic and frustration these images helped to foster. Her general calls for restrictions on practices like secondary picketing would lay the foundation for concrete legislation that she and the Conservatives would implement once in government.