Winter of Discontent - Public Sector Employees

Public Sector Employees

With many in the private sector having achieved substantial rises, the public sector unions became increasingly concerned to keep pace in terms of pay, especially for those paid lowest. The government had already announced a slight weakening of the policy on 16 January, which gave the unions cause for hope that they might win. Train drivers of ASLEF and the National Union of Railwaymen had already begun a series of 24-hour strikes, and the Royal College of Nursing conference on 18 January decided to ask that the pay of nurses be increased to the same comparative level as 1974, which would mean a 25% average rise. On 22 January the public sector unions held a "Day of Action", in which they held a 24-hour strike and marched to demand a £60 per week minimum wage. This was the biggest individual day of strike action since the general strike of 1926, and many workers stayed out indefinitely after that day.

With the succession of strikes having been called and then won, many groups of workers began to take unofficial action – often without the consent or support of the union leaderships. Ambulance drivers began to take strike action in mid-January, and in parts of the country (London, West Midlands, Cardiff, Glasgow and the west of Scotland) their action included refusing to attend 999 emergency calls. In these areas, the Army was drafted in to provide a skeleton service. Ancillary hospital staff also came out on strike. On 30 January, the Secretary of State for Social Services David Ennals announced that 1,100 of 2,300 National Health Service hospitals were only treating emergencies, that practically no ambulance service was operating normally, and that the ancillary health service workers were deciding which cases merited treatment. The Press made great play from reports that cancer patients were being prevented from getting essential treatment.