Public pay strike action - Cruising into a ‘Winter of Discontent’

THOSE of a certain age may recall Britain’s industrial crisis of the late 1970s that paralysed our nearest neighbour and brought Margaret Thatcher to power.

Known as the ‘Winter of Discontent’, in a line taken from Shakespeare’s Richard III, it began in the autumn of 1978 and was crystalised with media images of rubbish piling up on the streets of London and other major cities.

It was a time when trade unions wielded huge power in the UK and gave Thatcher the impetus to put major restrictions on their influence.