[Movie] My take on Outside Bet (2012)
Plot
In mid-80s Britain, people faced problems on the economic front that never made them lose their liveliness and sense of humor, however.
They remained optimistic, in spite of signs of a changing world that caused ordinary people to stay behind or lose the battle.
Some of them lost the battle, but none of them lost the war, as they waited for opportunity to knock on the door at the last minute.
This opportunity could sometimes be fake, in the form of a false promise, such as earning an income and making a living from racehorse betting or having their own racehorse.
The connection with the Wapping Dispute
This movie is a vivid illustration of the process of putting the final nail in the coffin of linotype print workers and their unions in the UK back in the 1980s.
In a similar fashion to other trades that failed to follow and adapt to technological change, and thus vanished, old-school print workers seemed to be unable to accept the new reality of computerized printing.
Big publishers in the likes of Rupert Murdoch didn’t give them much choice, either.
So, this whole group of skilled workers entered a dangerous whirlpool of negotiations and strikes that did not end well for them.
As a result, they were all sacked and did not get any redundancy payments to put the cherry on the cake.
Unemployment, gambling, drinking, and Co Inc.
It’s all a vicious circle.
When publishers decided to use new technology and methods to print their newspapers, this decision resulted in making 90% of their print workers redundant.
It meant that only ten in one hundred workers would keep their jobs and continue working with new equipment in modern state-of-the-art facilities.
What about the other ninety?
At first, they were offered redundancy packages ranging between 6,500 and 114,000 pounds in today’s money, but they rejected the offer.
In the end, publishers took advantage of favorable laws and didn’t give print workers a penny.
But, let’s say that they had accepted a redundancy package in the first place.
How long would it take them to spend that money?
I guess, not very long.
Would they be able to use it appropriately, for example, by starting a new business, learning new skills, improving their level of education, etc., so that they could find new job opportunities?
A very small minority of them would probably be able to put their redundancy packages to good use, but the vast majority would end up “investing” it in what, do you think?
Yes, you’ve got it!
They would end up buying their own racehorse, like they did in the movie.
Or, some of them will try to find a regular, yet temporary, cure to their problems in drinking and other similar habits.
Forced economic and social change
Economists call it structural unemployment, and it’s a type of involuntary unemployment that workers suffer, because their jobs and skills become technologically obsolete, to name one example.
In case of this movie, publishers look like they are in favor of new technology, while traditional typesetters are against it.
I think that, rather than publishers, or employers, in general, it is consumers who want more efficient, cost-effective, and technologically-advanced products and services, and as a result, employers and producers are expected to translate consumer wishes, needs, and wants into new, and presumably better, products and services.
Whether workers, as suppliers of labor for the products or services, will be able to meet the new requirements, demands, and standards that are set by consumers and the market, remains a question to be answered.
Regarding the case of the Wapping Dispute, the strikers’ call to people to embargo newspapers produced with new technology was met with little success.
Besides, other unions, such as the electricians, didn’t support the printers, and instead, they went on to provide staff to run the new printing facilities established by the publishers.
Finally, the government made sure that the necessary legal framework was in place to make the strikes unlawful and take the strikers to court.
In other words, the old linotype print workers were doomed before they even started their fight.
They had no support and help outside their own union, and perhaps there were some friendly unions that backed them.
Other than that, they were forced to accept economic, and as an effect, social, change, when no other choice was left to them.
But, just like in fairy tales with a happy ending, the heroes of this film manage to make their wildest dream come true by beating the odds in horse racing, which makes them a nice winning profit, and everyone lived happily ever after, as they say!
Sources:
Wapping dispute-Wikipedia-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapping_dispute