Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

Steelworkers' strike in Britain 1980

17,000 of our British Steel workers downed tools

The steel strike lasted nearly 14 weeks. After beginning in the nationalised sector, the stoppage gradually spread to the privatised steel works.

The plants reopened after the Lever inquiry recommended a package worth 16% in return for an agreement on working practices and productivity deals.

Later that summer, 17,000 of the 24,000 South Wales steel workers were put on short time and in September, the Consett works in County Durham was "peacefully" shut down with the loss of 3,400 jobs.

In Britain, steelworkers were historically among the highest paid skilled laborers. The British steel industry enjoyed a profitable and harmonious relationship between the management and the yellow union leaders until the 1970's.

This began to change due to accelerating steel production in other countries and slowing global demand, forcing the management of the British Steel Corporation (BSC), a nationalized company, to adopt the Beswick plan of plant closures, reduced output, and improved productivity in 1975.

Steelworkers opposed the plant closings as well as reduced annual wage increases; steelworkers had fallen from third to eighteenth in wages relative to other British industrial workers. Relations between the unions and management began to deteriorate. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister. She stated an intention not to intervene in labour and enterprise relations, "proposing" a manifesto to "reform" unions.

On 3 December 1979 the British Steel Corporation (BSC) announced to the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) Union of 90,000 steel workers that it could afford only a base raise of 0- 2% for the next year, and that workers could negotiate raises of up to 10% on a local plant-by-plant level depending on the plant's productivity. This was a betrayal. The national inflation rate was 17%.

Then on 6 December, the management announced a reduced 1980 production target of 15.2 million tonnes, down from an estimated 18.3 million in 1979. This decrease in production led to the reduction of 52,000 employees in the work force of 160,000. On the following day, 7 December 1979, the ISTC called for a national strike beginning 2 January 1980.

The strike began, as planned, on 2 January 1980 when the 90,000 members of the ISTC and the 14,000 members of the National Union of Blastfurnacemen began picketing at local plants. The goal of the union leadership was to stop all movement of steel.

A smaller number of "flying pickets" traveled throughout the country to ports, steel stockholders, steel producers, steel users, and the BSC headquarters. They gained allies from the National Union of Railwaymen who refused to transport steel on 24 January.

A nationally co-ordinated, united and organised strike of all the steel workers was thwarted by the yellow union leadership.

The union leadership did not organize the many local chapters of the union and decided to rely on mass pickets to wage the campaign. On 16 January they called ISTC members working at private plants to strike, with mass pickets starting 27 January.

On the day before the strike was to spread to private plants, a court injunction declared the strike illegal. The ISTC "complied", stopping the strike until the House of Lords later overturned the injunction.

The union leadership organized a mass picket at Hadfields on 12 February to prevent the workers from entering the plant. At 6:00 AM on the morning of the 12th, 350 pickets arrived at the plant gate for the 7:00 AM opening. The number rose to 620 pickets later in the day.

The police stopped the pickets' attempts to obstruct the road, which allowed management to keep the plant open all day. Police arrested 64 pickets.

The following day 300 pickets went to Hadfields, but police again prevented them from closing the plant. Police arrested 10 more pickets.