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Part of Orders of the Day — Employment Bill – in the House of Commons at 4:45 pm on 17 April 1980.

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Photo of Mr Eric Varley Mr Eric Varley , Chesterfield 4:45, 17 April 1980

I can give the hon. Gentleman the figures, chapter and verse, for the number of working days that were lost when the Conservative Party was in office between 1971 and 1973. I had not intended to do so, but I have been provoked. During that period of three years and eight months, 44·7 million working days were lost. During the four full years that the Labour Party was in office, from 1975 to 1978, 28·8 million working days were lost. During a longer period, half as many working days were lost.

When the Conservative Party was in power, the following major official strikes took place: a postal strike, a gas strike, an electricity strike and two coal miners' strikes. The first coal miners' strike was in 1972, after 46 years of relative industrial peace. There had never before been a nationwide strike.