To what extent was growing militancy responsible for worsening industrial relations in the 1960s and 1970s?

There are several factors that led to the decline of industrial relations in the years 1960-1979 such as growing militancy which created hostility between the government and the unions, thus eroding relations. Government legislation was often ineffective and resulted in a lack of genuine change or persecution, often allowing union militancy to increase resulting in worsening relations. The economic conditions of this era arguably led to the increase in union militancy as it was a response to industry negligence from the government, resulting in unemployment and low wages. However, the greatest reason for worsened relations was union militancy that created a large divide and led to a war-like battle between government and unions.
Firstly, it can be argued that whilst union militancy did increase and did lead to worsening relations, it was the ineffectiveness of the government that allowed this militancy to flourish; moderate legislation angered the unions thus resulting in increased militancy and a lack of sustained union suppressive legislation allowed militancy to progress and worsen relations. Industrial relations worsened due to ineffective government legislation. For example, in 1962, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan introduced NEDDY & NICKY which aimed to stimulate discussions and corporatism between unions, employers, workers and the government. However, such policy was redundant and ineffective for it was voluntary, only provoking discussions and was hard to regulate. As a result, this led to worsening industrial relations as the legislation had no impact and no tangible success for it was hard to enforce. This led to the unions believing that the government did not care about improving relations and therefore led to an increase in militancy in order to improve their own conditions; government legislation had failed the unions so they retaliated with militancy and extreme strikes (1964 3 million working days lost). Furthermore, government’s often ignored suggestions/bills that would have led to stricter rules with unions; industrial relations were worsened by government inactivity and passivity, for a failure to deal with union militancy only allowed the situation to worsen. For example, in 1969, Cabinet Minister Barbara Strife created and suggested ‘In Place of Strife’ which would have weakened union powers and imprisoned illegal strike organisers. However, PM Harold Wilson rejected the policy due to fears it would provoke a union reaction. Furthermore, in response to the 1972 Miners’ Strike, the miners gained a 27% wage increase, thus illustrating a lack of consistency. Consequently, industrial relations worsened as a result of government passivity, for they allowed union militancy to grow. Such a failure to control the unions asserted the power to the unions, thus creating a snowball effect where the unions experienced the positive impact of increased militancy; there was a power shift and the unions were in control of the government to a certain extent.