workers

Pre WW1

• The workers were very unhappy: there were lots of strikes before the War. In some cases the government sent soldiers to stop strikes: in Liverpool in 1911 soldiers were sent to break up a dock workers strike and 4 workers were killed.  

• The workers around the country  stopped going on strike during the war because they believed that they had a patriotic duty to help win the war, but it was clear that they were angry: pay was bad, the working hours were long and working conditions were not safe. 

1918 Education Act  

IMPROVERMENT

• Raised the age of school leavers from 12 to 14 years old.  

• Set up a system of Part-time schools for those in work: this was for 14-18 year olds.  

• The National, not local government took responsibility for funding schools: More money was paid to teachers: previously teaching was seen as a job for young women that they gave up when they got married: it was not considered a good career. The Act aimed to make teachers more professional and better skilled.  

• NO FEES for ALL Junior schools: More nursery schools, more special needs education, more medical inspections (probably the first time poorer children saw a doctor or nurse was in school).  

FAILURE

• Not enough funding. 

• Much of the funding was lost during the Great Depression when other priorities, such as helping unemployed people became more important.  Not much happened until after the Second World War.  

1918-19 Police go on strike

• Policemen were very poorly paid.  Government passes the 1919 Police Act

FAILURE

• The Act made it illegal for the police to go on strike.  

1919 Glasgow engineering unions go on strike  

FAILURE

• Government sends in tanks to crush the strike  

1921 Economic downturn and Black Friday 

IMPROVERMENT

• Economic downturn: In 1921 the price of coal dropped to less than a half of the price i1920.

• Mine owners cut the miners wages by 50% and demanded that they work longer hours.  

FAILURE

• Miners, rail and transport workers agreed a JOINT strike in April 1921

• but at the last minute the others backed down and the miners were left to go on strike on their own.

• The miners called this BLACK FRIDAY.

• They were isolated and weaker than if the different workers had helped each other and they were forced to go back to work. 

1925 Red Friday:

IMPROVERMENT

• The government was worried the workers would go on strike so the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin announced the government would give money (a subsidy) to keep wages up at the same level for 9 months. 

FAILURE

•  Price of coal fell again: Mine owners cut wages and added an hour to the working day. 

• On Red Friday the leader of the miner said the miners would agree “not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day!” 

1926 Samuel Commission 

IMPROVERMENT

A government report recommended: 

• increase in hours 

• Mine owners to modernise the facilities and safety protections in the mining pits.  

FAILURE

• commission suggested a reduction in wages

1926 General Strike:  

• 9 months of the subsidy (see above) ran out. The Mine owners tried again to reduce wages and increase hours. The miners refused so the owners locked them out of the mines. 

• The TUC (Trade Union Congress), an organisation of workers unions called a GENERAL STRIKE. This is when almost all unions and workers went on strike. 3 MILLION WORKERS went on strike.  

FAILURE

• The strike failed: the government got replacement people to do jobs that the striking workers had been doing. For example, they employed students and stockbrokers to drive buses and trains, women volunteered to deliver the post and more than 226, 000 people volunteered to be special constables (replacement police) to help keep law and order. 

• The government had planned ahead: it had stored emergency supplies of food that it could supply if delivery trains were not running. 

• The government was able to say that the workers were like COMMUNISTS trying to start a revolution. The Catholic Church denounced the strike as ‘A SIN’ (You KNOW from your other courses why the Church hates and fears communism!).  

• The workers did NOT stay united. The TUC said they were ending the strike, much to the shock of the miners! They felt betrayed and the strike collapsed.  

1927 Trades Disputes Act passed  

FAILURE

• This made it illegal for workers to go on strike in what was called ‘sympathy strikes’ just to show support for other workers.  

• The Act banned CIVIL SERVANTS (workers for the government) from going on strike. 

1929 Wall Street Crash & the start of the Great Depression 

IMPROVERMENT

• Some workers did ok: more people could afford cars and radios, so some workers in factories that made those products did not lose their jobs. 

FAILURE

• Massive unemployment: millions of men lose their jobs and families and whole communities suffer.

• When factories or mines in a town shut down, the shops, pubs, hotels and restaurants in that town also shut down because no one went out for drinks, food or bought things because they were too poor. 

1930 Unemployment Insurance Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Reformed the benefits system and abolished the rule that those claiming benefits must genuinely be seeking work. This was fairer.  

FAILURE

• Lots more people could apply for benefits, BUT was very expensive.  

1934 Unemployment Act 

IMPROVERMENT

2 kinds of unemployment benefit: 

• National Insurance (NI) benefit that was the right of EVERYONE paying NI contributions when they had worked in a job: NO MEANS TEST.  

• The Dole: paid if you had NOT paid NI.

FAILURE

• National Insurance was ONLY paid for 15 weeks: it ended after that. 

• The DOLE WAS MEANS TESTED. This was embarrassing and humiliating. It was lower than National Insurance.  

1934 Special Areas Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Gave £2 million pounds to areas worst hit by the Depression like Scotland, Tyneside and Cumberland and Wales. Meant to be spent on ‘Economic development’ (building factories for jobs) or ‘social improvements (like schools).  

FAILURE

•  Not well thought out: it was NOT ENOUGH money and industries in the areas had to apply themselves for the money: so, this meant the worst hit places like Jarrow could NOT apply because there was NO industry left there: it had all closed down!! Idiots!! 

1936 Jarrow March

IMPROVERMENT

• The marchers went from Jarrow in the North to London to demand jobs. The Jarrow shipyard had been shut down by a CARTEL of rich shipowners who wanted save costs and make more profit.

• on the 5-31st of October, around 200 men marched to London

• The march was an inspiration and although they did not get jobs (one person only was offered a job), they gained a sense of comradeship, they had stood up to the government and when they fought for Britain in the 2^nd World War and came back, they DEMANDED they they never have to go back again: they demanded the WELFARE STATE and the NHS.  

FAILURE

• The government ignored the petition. They crusaders were just given a train fare home AND because the marchers had not been looking for work, they had their unemployment benefits taken away.  

1937 Special Areas Amendment Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Gave tax cuts and low rents to businesses that moved into Special Areas where unemployment was high.  

FAILURE

• The tax cuts and lower rents were not different enough to tempt many companies to move to the Special Areas.  

1944 Butler Education Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Created the TRIPARTITE system of 3 different schools: Technical schools, Secondary Modern and Grammar. There was meant to be PARITY OF ESTEEM (They were meant to be equal and offer the kind of education different people wanted and needed).

• For example, if someone wanted to work in a factory, they went to the technical school. More girls went to the Secondary Modern because why waste a good education on them because they would get married soon after school and not bother going on to university

• Grammar schools were free: so if a bright child from a working class family worked hard they COULD potentially go to a very good school and get a better job and life for themselves and their family.  

FAILURE

• There was meant to be PARITY OF ESTEEM (all 3 were meant to be EQUAL), but they were not: the GRAMMER school got much better funding, better teachers and NOT getting into the GRAMMER school (you had to pass the 11+ exam) made you feel a failure and that education was not for you, so children were badly behaved at school. 

• Girls still did very FEMININE/DOMESTIC SPHERE type subjects at school like needlework, cooking and sewing.  

• GRAMMAR schools actually made education MORE unfair because middle and upper class parents got tutors for their children to help them pass the 11+ and so they took all of the places whilst the poorer families could not afford tutors so they went to the Secondary Modern School.  

• 4 out of 5 young people who failed the 11 plus exam went on to leave school with NO QUALIFICATIONS at all!

• some students who got into grammar school could not afford school uniform or transport so ended up rejecting the offer

1948 NHS created.

IMPROVERMENT

• You could now see a doctor or a dentist for FREE. This was a MASSIVE CHANGE. Many working people had NEVER been to the doctor before because it was too expensive: they often had paid with vegetables from their allotment or homemade products like jam.  

• A complete change in the attitude to health: before, working people EXPECTED to be ill a lot of the time: now good health for EVERYONE (not just the well-off) was a RIGHT.  

FAILURE

• Massively expensive: all the people who had never seen a doctor before because it was too expensive suddenly wanted to see a doctor so there were long waiting times. 

• For example, the government budgeted for the cost of new NHS glasses to be £1 million a year: but it was actually £32 million!! (good job government you just got it wrong by 31 million quid: morons...).  

• So many people wanted to get medicine that the government HAD to introduce Prescription charges.  But even then it was very small: 1 shilling, and disabled and old people

1962 Education Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Provided Government Grants to pay tuition fees for most students: this meant that far more working class students could attend university.  

1963 Robbins Report:

• The report said that there were many more young people from working class families that were easily bright enough to go to the university.  

IMPROVERMENT

• Increased university places. By 1967 there were 197,000 full-time students in the UK.

• By 1973 there were 217,000. This made education more accessible for working class students.  

1965 Circular 10/65 

IMPROVERMENT

• Requested local education authorities to reorganize their secondary schools into a comprehensive system, phasing out the existing tripartite system of grammar, technical, and secondary modern schools. 

FAILURE

• Only ‘requested’ LEAs to move to comprehensive education :though many of them did, some ignored it.  

1965-6 Comprehensive Education introduced. The New CSE exam introduced.  

IMPROVERMENT

• The new CSE exam meant that almost all students left school with some qualifications  

1967 Plowden Report on Primary schools  

IMPROVERMENT

• Report recommended a more ‘child-centred’ approach to education; many schools adopted this approach.  

• Recommended more male teachers in primary schools; selection for entry should not be based on academic testing; support for children from deprived backgrounds 

FAILURE

• Did not change the lack of male teachers in primary schools.  

1972 Education (Work Experience) Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Increased school leaving age from 15 to 16.  

• Allowed schools to organise Work Experience for young people in their final year of school. They gained valuable work-place skills.   

1972 Miners' Strike  

IMPROVERMENT

FAILURE

1972 Miners' Strike 

IMPROVERMENT

FAILURE

1976 Education Act:

IMPROVERMENT

• Ends Selection for school places in most parts of the country, the 11 plus ends. Sets up the COMPREHENSIVE education system.  

FAILURE

• There was a fear that PROGRESSIVE teaching with less focus on discipline and uniform, with trendy teachers who did not tell students offp led to a down turn in student focus.  

• Some schools (William Tyndale School) let students play table tennis or watch TV if they did not feel like studying.  

• Grammar schools had provided a good education and there was a fear that this was now gone.  

• MANY, MANY Grammar schools simply turned into PRIVATE schools an these actually made the system LESS FAIR because they charged fees so no working class children could get in.  

1978-9 The Winter of Discontent 

IMPROVERMENT

• Strikes and protests by miners, car workers, lorry drivers, teachers and public service workers (like people who cooked & cleaned in hospitals). 

1979: Government reviewed teachers pay.  

IMPROVERMENT

• Government increased pay by 10-15% 

1979 Newly elected Conservative government repeals (cancels) the 1976 Education Act  

IMPROVERMENT

• Grammar schools were allowed again.  

FAILURE

• Although Grammar schools were allowed, there were very few left (only 150 in the whole country). There are some left, mainly in Kent.  

1984-5 Miners’ strike

• led by Arthur Scargill.

• The Conservative government wanted to close down mines, saying that coal mining was out of date and unnecessary. The Miners union led a strike but the strike failed and the mines were closed.  

FAILURE

• The power of workers unions were crushed.

• The communities where mines were the most important employer were destroyed.

• This was particularly bad in Wales where whole towns were built around mines: when they closed, there was mass unemployment and the community was devastated.  

1986 GCSE Exams  

IMPROVERMENT

• Everyone around the country does the same exam: this is easier for employers and universities to see who had worked hard and deserved a place or job because they could measure candidates against themselves more easily.  

FAILURE

• Some employers thought they were too easy and not as rigorous or challenging as ‘O’ levels.  

1987: NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) introduced. 

IMPROVERMENT

• Created for the first time a nationally recognised qualification which tested a student’s skills for a specific job or career such as health and social care, engineering or hospitality and leisure. 

• Good for students who wanted vocational skills rather than academic qualifications.  

FAILURE

• Not seen as sufficiently academically rigorous by some schools, universities and employers.  

1988 Education Act.  

IMPROVERMENT

• Introduction of the National Curriculum which all schools in the state system have to follow.

• This reduced the difference in education that had existed in different parts of the country.  

FAILURE

• Academy Schools and Private schools do NOT have to follow the National Curriculum. 

1990:  Student Loans were introduced for university students;  

IMPROVERMENT

• Loans only had to be repaid gradually once students started to earn above an income threshold, around £25,000 per year.   

FAILURE

• Ended the system of grants for all students. Meant that students would be in debt after university. This reduced the number of students on courses that were vital, like social care or nursing, that were very important but not highly paid. Students knew that if they were going to have to pay off a big debt, they studied courses with higher earning potential like banking or law.  

 1995: The Modern Apprenticeship scheme was launched,  

IMPROVERMENT

• Provided vocational training and qualifications for a young persons whilst they worked.

• Reduced the need to run up a big student debt.  

2008 Education and Skills Act 

IMPROVERMENT

• Changed the school leaving age from 16 to 18. All young people were to be either in education or training. 

2010 Equality Act.  

IMPROVERMENT

• Protected workers rights: for example: employers cannot refuse to build ramps or toilet facilities for disabled workers; they cannot dismiss female workers for being pregnant; they cannot refuse a promotion to a worker who is homosexual because of their sexuality; they cannot refuse to employ a muslim or coloured person because of their religion or ethnicity.  

FAILURE

• Discrimination remains very hard to prove: for example, an employer can claim that a they were not discriminating against a coloured, female or disabled person if they don’t get a job: they can simply claim the other candidate was better.