Facing up to Thatcherism

The history of NALGO 1979-93

Mike Ironside & Roger Seifert, Oxford University Press, 420 pages, £15.00 inc. p&p, available from UNISON, 1 Mabledon Place, London WC1 H9A

NALGO - the National and Local Government Officers' Association - started life in 1905. In 1993, when its membership had reached 764,025, it merged with the other public sector unions - COHSE and NUPE - to become UNISON. Two former books have dealt with NALGO's earlier periods while this third volume covers its final 16 years.

It starts with the fall of the Labour government in 1979 following the "winter of discontent" during which many of NALGO's members went on strike against pay restrictions. But when the Thatcher government took over massive steps were taken to undermine union rights, while many public services were sold off to the private sector.

This volume describes NALGO's involvement in campaigns against the anti-union laws - which included the banning of unions at GCHQ surveillance centre in 1984. It covers the union's participation in the National Health Service dispute over pay in 1982 and its support for the miners' strike in 1984.

And it documents its opposition to changes in local authority structures, including the abolition of the Greater London Council, rate-capping and the poll tax.