Sleeping with the Enemy: Trade Unions in Wales during the Thatcher Years

Mon, 29 Oct 07 16:52:00

 

As General Secretary of the Wales TUC between 1983 and 2004, David Jenkins has vivid memories and views of Margaret Thatcher’s government and its effect on Wales and the trade union movement.  At this year’s annual Welsh Political Archive Lecture on 2 November, he will recall the bitter battles but also the forgotten history of how the trade union movement cooperated with the Conservatives in government to work towards a new kind of Welsh economy.

 

‘The Wales TUC and the Conservative government in London and Cardiff had two humdingars of an argument in the 1980s – to save the jobs in the steel and coal industries. But at the same time, the very same people in the Trade Union movement and in the Conservative government would be sitting around the table discussing how to attract inward investment into Wales, to develop new enterprises or receiving money towards developing a new cooperative centre,’ explained David Jenkins.

 

‘Wales was in the lead both in the more well-known battles during the steel and coal strikes but also in the not so well-known field of trying to work with the government. We claimed we were each other’s enemies but we also found it convenient to sit down quietly and do deals. How we managed that was at times a matter of amazement.’

Born and brought up in Cardiff, David Jenkins graduated from Liverpool University in 1970 with a degree in Politics and Economics, and subsequently gained a teaching qualification from the University of London.

Having served for 21 years as the trade union movement’s leading officer in Wales, David retired from his position as General Secretary in April 2004 at the age of 55. David now lives in Crickhowell and is married with three grown up children. He was awarded the OBE in 2004 for his contribution to improving industrial relations in Wales.

Dr John Graham Jones, Head of The Welsh Political Archive at The National Library of Wales, is very proud to welcome David Jenkins as guest speaker at the Annual Lecture.

 

‘The Welsh Political Archive’s Annual Lecture has featured some of Wales’s most influential politicians and political historians over the years. We’re very glad this year to welcome David Jenkins who was General Secretary of the Wales TUC during the momentous period of the 1980s when Wales experienced so many changes,’ said Dr John Graham Jones.

 

The Lecture can now be read online.

 

The Welsh Political Archive was founded in 1983. It is the repository of political material by all Welsh political parties and many pressure groups, as well as correspondence of leading Welsh political figures from David Lloyd George to the present day. The Welsh Political Archive pages.

 

For More Information:

Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902  sij@llgc.org.uk