Many NALGO members were angered by an ideology which undermined the post-war welfare settlement, that worshipped monetarism, the market and the individual,that asserted that there was ‘no such thing as society’, and that sought to humiliate public servants and trade unionists.
The practicable implementation of this policy seemed interminable - privatisation, contracting-out, compulsory competitive tendering, the creation of internal markets, cash limits, unspoken public sector pay policy, the decentralization of collective bargaining, the abolition of a tier of local government, and wave upon wave of anti trade union legislation.'
An abstract published by Oxford scholarship Online states that 'Throughout the 1980s Mrs. Thatcher dominated political life in the UK and Thatcherism became the shorthand for a series of political initiatives all over the world. Most accounts of these years have concentrated on the economics of free markets and privatisation. This book takes a different stance through a detailed analysis of the responses of The National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO) members, activists, leaders, and officials to the government’s public sector reform and restructuring programme. Employees in health, local government, and education faced cuts in funding, compulsory competitive tendering, internal markets, and new management practices associated with human resource management (HRM) and total quality management (TQM). Others in the gas, water, electricity, and transport industries faced wholesale privatisation.'
Copies can be ordered on line and may be available from UNISON regional offices.
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240753.001.0001/acprof-9780199240753