Were the Unions too powerful before Thatcher?

I've heard he's on 150k a year, dunno how true it is.

Well, do you think the country today would put up with any other industry insiders turning up at No.10 for beer and sandwiches and telling the elected leaders how they would allow them to run the country?

Would you scream bloody murder in the same way you do when there is the slightest hint of any sort of rich person having the slightest link with DC?

I'd rather millions of people were powerful than a handful of zillionaires (Barclay brothers, Philip Green etc)

Unemployment was less than 6% when Thatcher came to power, and was higher when she left office.

And how many were employed in jobs that were essentially welfare under a different label? There was a reason a lot of people lost their jobs through privitisation. All of the national industries were bloated beyond belief and that's how Labour had artificially kept the unemployment figures low. By hiring 4 men to do the job of 1 at the expense of the tax payer.

I'd rather millions of people were powerful than a handful of zillionaires (Barclay brothers, Philip Green etc)

Unemployment was less than 6% when Thatcher came to power, and was higher when she left office.

The unions were far too powerful before Thatcher. To put it simply they believed that government was their to serve their members and after a string of disasters and capitulations in 1978/1979 the unions went for a winter strike before an election and inadvertently signed their own death warrant as the Tories saw an opportunity and struck Labour down with a VoNC. For the next few years there was a kind of resentment with not much happening before in 1984 Scargill took the miners out without a ballot and in doing so put the unions in the hangman's noose as Thatcher declared open warfare and launched an overwhelming assault on the unions.

I've made it sound dramatic but the unions at the time deserved everything they got, we elect the politicians to rule us and not the unions.

'There's no such thing as society'
Does much more need to be said?

isnt that the quote that was taken out of context that left wingers abused?

Well, they were elected, and as a member, if you didn't vote for the 'right person' you were ostracised.

I believe it was Thatcher who brought in the secret ballot for the trades unions...

I've heard he's on 150k a year, dunno how true it is.

'There's no such thing as society'
Does much more need to be said?

Yep and Bob Crowes still too powerful today.

Ironically due to the EU (a socialist organisation)

It's relatively easy to demand higher wages and better working conditions when you can restrict the supply of labour because employers have nobody else to turn to in the event of a strike, but when you have an open door immigration policy to 500 million Europeans (many of whom live in extreme poverty) workers can be replaced at a drop of a hat. This acts as a brake on pay increases.