As the bin strikes began in Glasgow on Wednesday 24 August - we look back at the Glasgow Dustcart Worker's strike of 1975, where rubbish piled high in the streets of Glasgow. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Mounds of rubbish bags are piled high in London's iconic Leicester Square in 1979 as dustmen strike for increased pay, Hundreds of workers at the Ford factory in London walk out in 1978 over pay disputes. Postal union lobbying of Congress to obtain higher pay and better working conditions had proven fruitless. NUPE, isolated from the other unions, eventually decided to accept a slightly modified version of their early March pay offer. Then coming home and huddling round the gas cooker for heat. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter, Paper Monitor, Your Letters, Quote of the Day, Caption Competition and more, Tourists flock to 'Jesus's tomb' in Kashmir. The nice thing about electricity shortages was that they were announced on the wireless, by area, beforehand. President Richard Nixon called out the United States armed forces and the National Guard in an attempt to distribute the mail and break the strike. Comments have been closed on this article. Possibly the most notorious industrial action during the Winter of Discontent was the strike of grave diggers around Liverpool and Manchester. During the ambulance drivers strike in mid-January it was also reported that staff in 1,100 NHS hospitals were refusing to treat anything but emergencies. A second strike has been called in the row over changes to working conditions for drivers based at Tesco's Livingston distribution depot. Due to the lack of control many unions had over their members by this time, many strikes did not end immediately after the agreement, testimony to the initiative exercised by many rank and file workers throughout the period who were willing and able to work and initiate strikes outside of their union's control. Open your image file to the full size using image processing software. GLASGOW cleansing workers are becoming more militant as direct result of Susan Aitkens poor leadership regarding the councils refuse policy. Look inside 500k home with bright yellow exterior up for sale in south side. With the government continuing to try and hold back pay in the public sector. Police have appealed for help after the 68-year-old man was seriously injured on Victoria Road at its junction with Allison Street on Friday evening and taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The worst strike for many was on throwaway nappies. "; Watch his History of Modern Britain on BBC Two on Tuesdays at 2100 BST, Read and watch your written memories, pictures and videos every Friday in, How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire, Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit, How elephants helped to shape human history, by David Cannadine, Justin Webb on America's love affair with progress. It influences the interest rate we get on our savings and the rate we pay on our mortgage. Our message for @COSLA has been loud, clear and consistent. This series of events came to be known as the Winter of Discontent. Edinburgh is usually quite a clean city, but the bin men have chosen, quite wisely, to strike during the worst period, with the massive Fringe festival on, to force the councils hand. A number of important strikes were launched, several of which still evoke images iconic of the struggle during the winter of 1978-79. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Union leaders pleaded with the workers to return to their jobs. The strike showed how important cleansing workers are to the upkeep of the city with rubbish piling high and there being fears over disease spreading and increased numbers of rats. The performances and writing seem to be more suited to a school production than a television show and the most irritating aspect is the word " Pigging " as in Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. a garbage man dumping a bin into the garbage truck - bin man stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images Schoolboys Geoff Hatle and Mark Evans working as dustmen during the dustmen's strike, UK, 10th March 1970. Pride flag to to fly above West Dunbartonshire as council backs event. One could be somewhat prepared. I cant afford to take the children on holiday or anywhere else. The loan meant the UK economy could be stabilised whilst drastic budget cuts were implemented. He has attacked ambulancemen and called them names and he has victimised others., All this disruption to the operation of Britains hospitals inevitably brought negative press. Striking postal workers felt wages were very low, benefits poor and working conditions unhealthy and unsafe. Previously the relatively weak collective strength of public sector unions and lorry drivers had seen those groups of workers living standards hurt badly by rising inflation. See production, box office & company info. Six women were suspended as a result and in response workers walked out across Central Londons hospitals. The workers' demands of a 25% pay increase and 35 hour week were made official and negotiations with Ford commenced. At the time, postal workers were not permitted by law to engage in collective bargaining. Should you wish to remove a comment you have made, please contact us, This site would like to use cookies to track your usage of the site, Insulin and Diabetes: Alan Nabarros Story. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's [7], Authorities were unsure of how to proceed. Mass demonstrations were held in many cities, including London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. Find the right content for your market. !Sarah Grimstone, London, The 70s was my teenage decade. On February 5, T he New York Times lamented that the city looked. Learn more about how you can collaborate with us. Glasgow primary school splits up brothers and sisters as it is too full. [9] It was the first time since 1926 that British miners had officially gone on strike (although there had been unofficial strikes, as recently as 1969). I seem to remember contests of how to get along with tiny amounts of water - winners combined boiling food, washing dishes, bathing, washing clothes and finally, using the remains to water the garden, in about the same order with the same water. Alamy and its logo are trademarks of Alamy Ltd. and are registered in certain countries. Editors' Code of Practice. Tories criticised the power of the unions and the lack of any stricter policy going forwards. With 1.5 million workers out, the day marked the largest general stoppage of work in the UK since the General Strike of 1926. Many NHS staff were shocked at the vitriol they received even where trade union members were careful to mitigate any adverse effects from their actions. I really need a list of good books for this topic. During the 1970s, miners went on strike again for the first time since the failure of the general strike - this time with more success. Lindsay rejected Rockefellers suggestion to settle at $425, claiming that $400 was already too high, the strike was illegal, and, Now is the time to break these public-service unions. His intermediaries told the union that Lindsay wouldnt go beyond $400 on principle, to which their lawyer replied, Principle aint gonna clean your streets.. Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch. The government announced a limit on wage rises of 6 per week for all workers earning under 8,500 a year on July 11 and the TUC general council soon voted in favour of the proposals. I was about 8/9 during the three-day week. Stunning canary yellow house on pastel-coloured Shawlands road up for sale. The most significant ones are the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Retail Prices Index (RPI). What is the Spanish language plot outline for The Dustbinmen (1969)? I was a control engineer at Huddersfield Power Station at the time and part of my duties was to switch off the supply to various substations around the town, according to an official rota. Police raid Glasgow property and seize 100k of drugs as two men arrested. Harold Wilson became Prime Minister on March 4, 1974. Barbara Ciruk - polska . 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now. An event that is often recalled clearly from memories of the period, the strike prompted one local health official to confide in a journalist that burials at sea were being considered by the local authority if the strike became prolonged. Fifty years ago, seven thousand sanitation workers, members of Teamsters Local 831, flooded City Hall Park on Feb. 2, 1968, demanding higher wages and benefits. In the same year Harold Wilson's Labour government, wanting to avoid increasingly large levels of unemployment agreed a voluntary incomes policy with the TUC that would cap pay increases for workers at limits set by the government. I had my second son in Feb 1979 when hospital workers strike was on .We had paper sheets on the beds, no hot food, the babies had paper baby gowns and then it snowed really hard, cutting off Chelmsford where I was in hospital from my home in Maldon. But the car giant had been hit hard by post-war. Phases I and II, announced in July 1975, proposed a rise of 6 a week for all workers earning below 8,500 annually. The action even affected David Ennals, the Labour governments Health Minister. Their walkout caused petrol stations to close as the oil could not be transported around the country, A refuse collector who is employed by Westminster City Council empties bins around Leicester Square in 1979, A passer-by signs a petition to keep open the casualties department at Bethnal Green hospital, which was due to be closed down because of budget cuts in 1978, A concerned patient discusses the impending closure of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital with a nurse in 1976, Coffins in a disused Liverpool warehouse waiting for gravediggers to end their strike before funerals can take place, December 1978, Protesting postal workers march through the streets of London in support of industrial action at Grunwick photo-processing laboratory in Willesden, Dozens of police officers hold back feuding protesters at the Grunwickdispute, Hundreds of officers were deployed to restrain demonstrators during the 1977 industrial disputes, Unofficial strikers are photographed with placards outside Wandsworth bus depot in 1976. Many people know that Martin Luther Kings final campaign was in Memphis, where he gave his Ive Been to the Mountaintop speech in support of striking sanitation workers. 19th March 1975. The strike was illegal under the Taylor Law (passed the previous year), and DeLury was sent to jail. NHS ancillary staff, who worked in support roles like catering, cleaning, laundry and portering services, began the 1970s with average pay not only lower than the average manual worker but lower than the average unskilled worker. Mum made it sound exciting like the Blitz but it wasn't. What now for Paul the eight-limbed oracle? In the 1970s rats were freely running all through the community and some rats were as big as small cats. So thats why weve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who arent really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse. At the time, dustcart drivers were being paid a basic wage of 32.50 compared to Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers who were paid 37 in the private sector. Bin Men on Strike 1970's | Subcultures and muses A detailed look into designers, sub cultures, consumers, muses and other socio-cultural and politcal aspects of the later half of the 20th century Bin Men on Strike 1970's Posted on March 19, 2011 by lauramartin1 Standard Bin men general strike 1978- 1979 known as the winter of discontent. It filled the area that is now occupied with a water fountain, Fireman stand in a line outside of Westminster Fire Station while on strike in 1977. I will always remember watching my mother pulling a shapeless lump of half cooked dough out of the oven, made to look even more obscene by candle light because the power was off. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. As a 13-year-old at the turn of the decade I clearly remember the 70s miners' strike, the winter of discontent, the three-day working week and gritters on strike. Better than Crackerjack! At the time, dustcart drivers were being paid a basic wage of 32.50 compared to Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers who were paid 37 in the private sector. Safety fears for West Dunbartonshire councillors after 'horrendous' experience. The government was forced to borrow 2.3billion from the International Monetary Fund - the largest loan ever requested. I don't remember it myself, but I was born in 1979 in Swansea, South Wales. When the USA renegotiated their contract with the City in 2007, they won recognition of MLK Day as a holiday in recognition of Dr. Kings special relationship with sanitation workers. (Image: Mirrorpix) The 70s were truly a different era for Birmingham. Video Unavailable. They were offered 5 per cent, and on 22 September 1978 they struck. My eldest daughter wants to go into nursing when she leaves school this summer. Next to take action were the lorry drivers. A Gannett Company. With their budget being cut time after time, workers are fed up with not being able to do their job properly. [12] This was not necessarily very effective. BUY TWO IMAGES, GET THE LOWEST PRICE IMAGE HALF PRICE WITH CODE: 50%OFFNEXTIMAGE. Binmen, on strike for a 55/-. Politicians are still launching arguments, particularly about the role of trade unionism and socialism in British history, based around a folk memory of the period. (Photo by Staff/Mirrorpix/Getty Images), Attempted murder in Glasgow as pensioner rushed to hospital and detectives launch investigation. We would have candles and mum made us all Bovril to drink. The stench of the overflowing bins was awful and I was warned by my mother to avoid playing anywhere near the rubbish. Penny Hibbins, a single mother to four children, working as a domestic at Starcross Hospital in Devon, told The Guardian of her poverty wages of just 39.50 a week, almost half the median weekly wage for men and less even than the median wage for women manual workers. Workers in other government agencies also announced they would strike if Nixon pursued legal action against the postal employees. APWU president Moe Biller described Manhattan (New York City) post offices as like "dungeons," dirty, stifling, too hot in summer, and too cold in winter. BUY TWO IMAGES, GET THE LOWEST PRICE IMAGE HALF PRICE WITH CODE: 50%OFFNEXTIMAGE. They only returned to work once a 17 per cent pay rise had been agreed. After several weeks the TGWU agreed on a 17% pay increase, the idea of a shortening of hours having been completely dropped, and urged the strikers to return to work on November 22, which they did. In June 1976, the pound had reached a record low against the dollar. If this leads to industrial action we must remember the events of the past that took place in Glasgow in the 1970s during the bin man strike. Pictures of the 1970s cleansing crisis sent in by Living Rent. I cant afford a Sunday joint. Between October 1978 and February 1979 Britain experienced a wave of strikes on a scale that hadnt been seen since the General Strike of 1926. Another big year for strikes, more than two million Americas hit the picket line in 1970. The conversation will go back to what it should be about people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Pay for the usage you need, licensing that works for you. The direct action help stem the tide of effective pay cuts by inflation eating up the value of their wages and won significant improvements for many tens of thousands of workers. Our wages were linked to inflation and seem to go up every other week, good old Ted Heath. A LEAKED draft of Jeremy Corbyns hard-Left manifesto has revealed plans to renationalise the railways, energy companies and Royal Mail. Marchers supporting the sanitation workers' strike pass through downtown Memphis, March 29, 1968. Council decision to increase allotment rent by 400% 'will force people out'. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. That crowd was 70 percent of the entire sanitation workforce. After Glasgow's forthcoming cleansing worker strike was brought to the UK's attention during last night's Question Time, two residents and campaigners discuss the situation and its connection to problems of the 1970s. Rubbish was piled high in Central London's Leicester Square after Westminster Council had allocated rubbish to be dumped there. Vincent Cannato wrote of the Lower East Side, Garbage was piled chest-high. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. I can't really recall what we did with them, but did tell me mum later what we had found and she rang the council office to complain, not that it did any good. Striking photographs show the effects of the colossal strike action as huge bags of rubbish fill Londons Leicester Square, young men desperately seek employment at local job centres and dozens of police hold back feuding workers. 08:47, 6 DEC 2021. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. The first strikes The 'Winter of Discontent' began on 24 August 1978, when Ford car workers put in a claim for a 20 per week rise and a 35-hour week, which amounted to a rise of 25 per cent in annual pay. Trash accumulates quickly. For the first time in 25 years, the army was brought in to break a strike and clear the rubbish away. Callaghan narrowly won a motion of confidence after the sanctions had been heavily amended in Parliament and accepted that they could not be imposed. I developed my love of ice cream that year! Seeing as this comedy is about men who empty dustbins I`m going to sum up my opinion with the very ironic " This show is a load of rubbish " Like the previous commentator I too have caught this on Granada Plus and I fail to see how anyone found it funny all these years ago . The government was hesitant to arrest strike leaders for fear of arousing sympathy among other workers, and because of popular support for the strikers. Yet, the actual events of 1978-79 undermine that story. Their actions were disruptive and perceived as a crisis precisely because they were abnormal for the period, not because they were typical of it. Ambulance drivers were particularly opposed to the deal in both unions. My abiding memory of the rolling power cuts was having to write university essays by candle light. Candles could not be found in hardware stores, but were plentiful in Harrods. I spent 30 minutes with a bucket and sponge and the damage magically disappeared.Bill Huggins, Birmingham, As a trainee engineer in 1976, I remember changing a toilet roll when on secondment to our Sheffield factory and being seriously worried that someone might find out and accuse me of doing somebody else's job. pic.twitter.com/S05fx93Urm. Inflation had reached a height of nearly 26.9% in August 1975. This was certainly true of National Health Service staff who participated in strikes during this period. Apart from that my abiding memories is of dreariness, decay and depression apart from the summer of 76 of course. They eventually settled on an 11 per cent rise. And then three months later being charged for the repainting of my room in Halls because of the smoke "damage" in my room. No bread? He then offered the workers $425 and future arbitration, to which they agreed. REUTERS/Hugo Correia (PORTUGAL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT) [2][3][4], The post office was home to many black workers, and this population increased as whites left postal work in the 1950s and '60s for better jobs. It wasn't a great success. This image could have imperfections as its either historical or reportage. 22 Oct 1970, Martin Mayer - MM1405024.jpg The army were put on standby to take over from tanker drivers who eventually settled on a 15 per cent rise. [4], The strike ended after eight days with not a single worker being fired, as the Nixon administration continued to negotiate with postal union leaders. ~Red Road Flats.Various . [10] Strike [ edit] Dick Groat - amerykaski baseballista, koszykarz [1] Jerry Springer - amerykaski dziennikarz i polityk [2] Wiktor Wysoczaski - polski teolog i duchowny starokatolicki, zwierzchnik Kocioa polskokatolickiego w RP (1995-2023), biskup warszawski (1996-2023) [3] 26 kwietnia. Copyright 01/05/2023 Alamy Ltd. All rights reserved. A strike of gravediggers who were members of the GMWU (now GMB) occurred in Liverpool and and Tameside in late January. There are a number of different measures of inflation in use. It was cause for double celebration for the Frenchman as his club side Montpellier crushed Champions League chasing Monaco and his former club won the Old Firm to reach the Scottish Cup Final. Submitted by Alex. Between 1975 and 1978 attempts by the Labour government, led by Jim Callaghan, to rein in inflation by holding down pay had only made this situation worse. At the start of it, Birmingham was one of the most . Here is a selection of your comments. West Dunbartonshire aiming to become dementia friendly community. Wearing their orange hi-vis overalls, the two . In that effort, the experiences of those involved, many of them involved in collective mobilisations for the first time, has been rather forgotten. Most Popular Now | 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now. In addition I remember the queues of cars at garages in Stevenage to get the little petrol that there was. After bringing supplies transported by road to a virtual standstill, and after just less than a month of strike action, the drivers accepted a pay deal just 1 less per week than the union had asked for. View our online Press Pack. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused. This continued until the end of March but the government became increasingly intransigent as it neared collapse in Spring 1979. The piles of rotten waste became our playground, well it always was our playground so we continued to play on the soccer pitch, rather than kicking a ball but investigating all the crap spilling out of the bags! Find the right content for your market. Phase II of the proposal was agreed in May of that year and stated pay increases would be limited to a maximum of 4 per week for the following 12 months. COP26: Glasgow cleansing workers vote for strike action during summit. In some places managers managed to provoke all-out strikes by disciplining staff for taking part. [6], On March 17, 1970, in New York City, members of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 36 met in Manhattan and voted to strike. This development of rank-and-file independence from the trade union leadership and from orderly collective bargaining in the late 1960s/early 1970s in US, in . 12th March 1975. Lawyers have it rough. Glasgow Lives: Imogen, 30, West end,Performance Poet & Playwright. Newspaper commentators and politicians often invoke the spectre of the 1970s via images of uncollected rubbish piling up in Leciester Square or references to a gravediggers strike that affected Liverpool and Tameside for two weeks in 1979. With the exception of the Ford workers strike in Autumn 1978 all of the other groups were well below average in terms of how often those workers went on strike. During the lorry crisis, Callaghans relaxed attitude appeared out of touch with the British public. [1], The postal strike influenced the passage and signing of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. On February 5, The New York Timeslamented that the city looked likea vast slum as mounds of refuse growhigher and strong winds whirl the filth through the streets. By that point there were about 30,000 tons of trash on the streets, a number that would grow to100,000 tons. A 37-year-old man has been taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital after hit by a car driver on Balshagray Avenue in the early hours of Monday morning.
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