Looking back (with twenty twenty hindsight) my impression was that even with greater flexibility the owners/govt would be well aware of the strengths of their competitors so even if the unions had compromised with working practise changes the owners were unlikely to channel savings into making the necessary investments to compete internationally.

The thing is the word 'demarcation' for protecting your workers trade status when a job needed doing was not the actual buzz word in the newspapers at the time. It was another word but I can't for the life of me remember it.