Abstract
Among the most arduous of company management’s responsibilities was the control of unionised staff. With strong unions entrenched in the ‘custom and practice’ of overmanning, restrictive practices and regular overtime at high hourly rates, talk of weak management was easy, but thanks to favourable legislation trade unions were at this time too powerful and privileged to be gainsaid even by governments. Across industry and the economy as a whole, they exerted irresistible pressure on Wilson’s, brought down Heath’s and humiliated Callaghan’s. This was a period when good industrial relations were commonly taken to mean the avoidance of strikes. The only means of putting a stop to established malpractices was to gamble on victory in what might prove a long, costly and possibly crippling stoppage, and a risk of this magnitude was rarely worth taking by companies with six-year contracts and no guarantee of an extension.
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References
Jeremy Isaacs in Independent Broadcasting 4, May 1975 (Independent Broadcasting Authority) p. 9.
Annan Report, paras 27.2 and 27.19.
Independent Broadcasting 4, May 1975, p. 14.
Annan Report, para. 27.16.
ITCA Council Minutes, 3 July 1968.
Annan Report, para. 27.37.
John Howard Davies, Controller of Light Entertainment at Thames, reported in the Sunday Times, 10 July 1988.
Source: London Weekend Television.
The Times, 23 March 1968.
ITA Press Statement dated 14 August 1968: ITA Paper 111(68).
See Peter Seglow, Trade Unionism in Television (Saxon House, 1978) Chapter 8.
For another explanation see Chapter 6.
ACTT Television Commission: Report to Annual Conference (Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians, March 1972).
Peter Seglow, Trade Unionism in Television, pp. 173–4.
IBA Minutes 301(72).
IBA Paper 143(75).
Alan Sapper in Broadcast, 28 July 1975, quoted in the Annan Report, para. 27.40.
Peter Seglow, Trade Unionism in Television, p. 167.
IBA Paper 283(79).
Report 156 from the National Board for Prices and Incomes: Costs and Revenues of Independent Television Companies (HMSO, October 1970) (Cmnd 4524) para. 112.
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© 1990 Independent Broadcasting Authority and Independent Television Association
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Potter, J. (1990). Labour Relations. In: Independent Television in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09907-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09907-8_2
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