ABSTRACT
George Woodcock’s time as General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress from September 1960 until March 1969 is often characterized as a period of unfulfilled promise, a lost opportunity for the trade unions to modernize themselves and become a necessary partner in the management of the British economy. Barbara Castle, impatient of trade union ways when Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, was exasperated by Woodcock who had given her the impression he agreed with her In Place of Strife proposals to reform the trade unions. Woodcock believed the misbehaviour of the Electrical Trades Union leadership over ballot-rigging threatened to drag the entire trade union movement into public disrepute and this was simply unacceptable. Woodcock harboured no comforting illusions about eradicating the inequalities of power that existed between capital and labour. Workers were more prosperous, more secure and enjoyed an improved bargaining position in a tight labour market.
