Throughout the 1980s Mrs Thatcher dominated political life in the UK and Thatcherism became the shorthand for a series of political initiatives all over the world. Most accounts of these years have concentrated on the economics of free markets and privatization. This book takes a different stance through a detailed analysis of the responses of NALGO (The National and Local Government Officers Association) members, activists, leaders, and officials to the government's public sector reform and restructuring programme. Employees in health, local government, and education faced cuts in funding, compulsory competitive tendering, internal markets, and new management practices associated with HRM and TQM. Others in the gas, water, electricity, and transport industries faced wholesale privatization. This unique account of the period written from the evidence and perspective of those involved will be an important source for researchers, teachers, and practitioners in politics, industrial relations, public administration, and management concerned with the events and lessons of the 1980s.

The subject of industrial relations is intimately connected with the nature of schooling - in particular, the teacher trade unions have played and will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the school system - yet this subject has been virtually neglected in educational literature. Mike Ironside and Roger Seifert's book redresses this balance and unravels the complex issues surrounding the employment and management of teachers. Recent changes in education have had massive implications for the way in which our education system is organised. In the light of recent events, this book questions who controls or ought to control schools, focusing on the government, Department of Education, LEA's, head teachers, school governors, parents and teaching unions. The authors argue that in order for schools to continue to function, industrial relations must be given priority, including the development of a proper framework for negotiation and the resolution of conflicts.

The subject of industrial relations is intimately connected with the nature of schooling - in particular, the teacher trade unions have played and will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the school system - yet this subject has been virtually neglected in educational literature. Mike Ironside and Roger Seifert's book redresses this balance and unravels the complex issues surrounding the employment and management of teachers. Recent changes in education have had massive implications for the way in which our education system is organised. In the light of recent events, this book questions who controls or ought to control schools, focusing on the government, Department of Education, LEA's, head teachers, school governors, parents and teaching unions. The authors argue that in order for schools to continue to function, industrial relations must be given priority, including the development of a proper framework for negotiation and the resolution of conflicts.

This is the second volume on the history of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), covering the period 1932 to 1945. In 1931, when the economic slump created mass unemployment, the TGWU was a large rambling union. The union lost members, struggled to hold its activists together, and split politically between communists and their allies and the right-wing labour leadership of Bevin. This spilled over to the struggle of the unemployed, the role of the state, and attitudes to the growth of fascism at home and abroad. By the late 1930s, an armament-inspired boom allowed the TGWU to negotiate industry-wide formal agreements in many of its strongholds - docks, passenger and commercial road transport, and general labourers. These deals favoured the weak but held back the strong such as the London bus workers who staged strikes based on rank-and-file organisation. These were matched by local strikes against a range of speed-up initiatives. The TGWU backed rearmament and the war when it came. The leadership put aside its anti-communism for the duration, and communist-inspired shop stewards played major roles in improving war-time productivity. The union grew and large numbers of women joined, forming their own groups and playing an increasing role in union affairs. At the same time the TGWU hesitantly supported liberation in the colonies. As the war came to an end, the union supported the welfare reforms of the Beveridge report and backed the election of a Labour Government.