Unions don’t call the shots any more – but we’d all be better off if they did

theguardian.com:

For those versed in trade union folklore, the battle of Saltley Gate holds a special place. In 1972, workers from Birmingham factories downed tools to support striking miners, blockading a gasworks in the city where there was a huge stockpile of coking coal. Orchestrated by a young Arthur Scargill, the blockade successfully prevented lorries from collecting the coal.

The action was pivotal in winning the strike for the miners, so it comes as no surprise that today, on the 50th anniversary of Saltley Gate, the Midlands branch of the TUC is holding a celebratory event. Scargill will be one of the speakers.

There is much talk about how Britain is returning to the 1970s, but the detour down memory lane provided by the events in Birmingham in February 1972 shows how fatuous are the comparisons. To be sure, there is some upward pressure on pay as businesses reopen after lockdown, but the idea that Britain is locked into a wage-price spiral is for the birds. Fundamental changes to the economy that have taken place over the past half century mean prices are going to rise faster than wages this year, further eroding living standards.

The factories workers surged out of to support Scargill’s call for solidarity have largely gone – since replaced by offices, call centres and warehouses. Mass pickets were outlawed as part of a concerted drive by the Conservative governments of the 1980s to weaken organised labour. The number of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements has plummeted, and in the private sector only one in seven workers belong to a trade union. Four million of the 6.6m trade union members work in the public sector, while those in the lowest-paid, highly casualised sectors, who would benefit most from the