Book 2 -Journeyman
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BOOK 2 -JOURNEYMAN 1 LONGBRIDGE AFTER LORD THE FACTORY – CHANGING ATTITUDES After the 1956 strike a new atmosphere entered the factory and while Joe Edwards was now Managing Director at the Pressed Steel Company opposite Morris Motors at Cowley, his legacy carried on at Longbridge. By 1958 my father had moved into number ‘5’ machine shop and although he was still making clutch forks, the ones he now made were fitted to the larger 1500 cc ‘B’ Series engine. The other new feature of his life was a personal telephone situated by his machine and housed in an acoustic head booth to reduce the noise levels of the machine shop. This communications aid represented the seed change in attitudes initiated by Joe Edwards and demonstrated how management had finally recognised the need for a focus figure when dealing with the 39 unions on the site. Although Lord was still there, his role as Chairman and Managing Director of BMC mostly kept him away from day to day routines in the factory as he was also preparing for retirement, an event that occurred at the end of 1961 just after I graduated. Although the antagonisms between him and my father continued, most shop steward contact was now directed through others. However, Dick Etheridge continued to enjoy a high press profile as Lord moved on. Joe Edwards returned to Longbridge after Lord retired and he set about the difficult task of integrating the disparate elements of the corporation. A spoof article published in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury on Sunday 27th December 1959, (by coincidence my father’s 50th birthday) and written by their staff reporter 'ALERTUS' took the form of a dream Diary for 1960. The spoof article was accompanied by a contrived photograph of Len Lord and my father allegedly having a conversation on the car park outside CAB 1. This was created by pasting pre-cut images of the protagonists onto a photograph of the CAB 1 building, but the limited technology of the time offered an image with poor perspective. Although the original newsprint still exists in a poor quality and badly stained cutting, Emily Rice & Paul Black’s equally contrived representation below shows them standing before an imaginary ‘Kremlin’ office block that captures the essence of the original. Like the original it shows the ‘Cloth capped agitator’ and the ‘Pin striped magnate’ in their traditional roles of ‘Lord and master’, or perhaps that of the classical ‘Master-Servant’ relationship described in modern business texts. A very common early 20th century issue and perhaps more emotionally focussed by Robert Tressel’s working class novel ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ (21). The following ‘tongue in cheek’ aside sums up their complex relationship in a most interesting way and carries an element of truth within it. Part of the text is reproduced here: ‘ALERTUS’ is slumbering in a troubled way; “Outside the Longbridge factory of the British Motor Corporation two figures can be seen strolling on the pavement. One is Sir Leonard Lord, the motor magnate. The other is Mr Dick Etheridge, the factory’s Communist Convenor of shop stewards. Sir L "I asked you out for this little chat, Richard, because sometimes I get a little sneaking feeling that relations between management and men at our little place aren’t always as close as they might be. What do you think?" Mr E: "Well Len, now that you have been kind enough to bring the matter up I will say that I had intended mentioning it myself" Sir L: "Don’t you think, Richard that we ought to see how much we can improve matters in 1960?" Mr E: "As a matter of fact, Len, it is right at the top of my New Year’s Resolutions". Dreamscape for 1960 Sir L: "Well, that’s fine. By the way, old chap, do you run a car? Always ready to help, you know". Mr E: "I’m much obliged. By the way, do want sponsoring for the AEU?" Sir L: (Rather sharply): "Do you think they could get me a five-day week?" [There is a silence. Then both smile apologetically and shake hands.] Sir L: "Cheerio, Richard!" Mr E: "Cheerio, Len!" [On his way back to his office Sir Leonard confides to me - “Shouldn’t be surprised to see that chap in the New Year’s Honours List one of these years ……"] Who slammed that door? Who woke me up? Oh well it was a beautiful dream while it lasted. “Nineteen Sixty – here we come!” My father’s dealings with management after 1960 tended to be either with the works director Bill Davies or George Harriman, Lord’s Deputy. My father’s relationship with George Harriman was one of friendly banter and strict professionalism and Turner (41) records Harriman as saying: “When I see him, I slap him on the back and say ‘Hello Dick’ how are the kids?" "We get on fine." Turner (39) also records that Richard O’Brien, BMC’s Director of Industrial Relations made the following statement sometime in the early 1960’s: “Certainly things are far better than they were five years ago. We have made a meticulous attempt to improve communications at Austin, the shop stewards get better facilities for meetings and they meet management once a month.” My father corroborated this at the time when he would say, “Yes, we no longer have to have a strike in order to meet management”. But he believed also that the effectiveness of the BMC Joint Shop Stewards Committee meant the shop stewards were better informed and abler to act in concert when inter-factory disputes occurred. This new approach to solving disputes was demonstrated in practice when workers making Mini components at the Morris Motors, Tractors and Transmissions branch at Washwood Heath in Birmingham went on strike in September 1959; just a month after the car’s launch. This unofficial strike by 120 hourly paid workers mostly belonging to the AEU but with a handful from the T&GWU, was essentially over a 6d (2.5 p) an hour day work claim which the company refused to acknowledge. After a week the entire production of the Mini at Cowley was threatened and nearly 3000 operatives were laid off at Longbridge and Cowley. The AEU national officers had instructed the strikers to return to work but they had received only a derisory and noisy response from the men. The Birmingham District Committee (AEU) had subsequently asked the strikers to meet a three-man delegation led by my father to seek to arbitrate on the matter to which the strikers eventually agreed and the trio met them in private on Wednesday 23Rd September 1959. The striker’s mood was rebellious as they thought the national officers had let them down by taking the side of management, but after some tough talking by my father and after the arbitrators had left the room the strikers continued the meeting where they ultimately agreed to return to work. Their conditions for a return were that the company agree to meet their shop stewards in order to negotiate their claim. My father was able to assure them that the company would agree to meet their representatives within 24 hours of a return to work. The Daily Mail published an interview with my father in the following day’s edition and an extract is given below: “Mr Etheridge has led many battles against the BMC management, but yesterday he and his team were nicknamed ‘The Olive Branch Boys’. Later Mr Etheridge told me ‘I certainly do not think it is odd for a Communist like myself to help end a strike. In this case I asked for permission to leave the factory and go to the meeting about 11 miles away. They gave me permission and offered me a car and driver to get me there. They did not ask me whether I was going to support the strike or to help to stop it – so I didn’t tell them. But I refused the lift and drove myself in my A 35”. As I was still living at home at this time I can remember quite clearly his view that this was a breakthrough in industrial relations at BMC because management had acknowledged for the first time that the joint shop steward’s movement was more useful in settling disputes within the company because they were closer to the shop floor mood than the national officers. He was heavily critical of the AEU national officers and the manner in which they had handled the dispute, but he blamed the right wing extremists of the AEU’s executive whom he accused of being politically motivated and out of touch with reality. He also firmly believed that some senior officers such as Bill Carron (a prominent Catholic activist and recently Knighted by the Pope) were more wedded to the anti-Communist cause than seeing peace in the industry. The successful resolution of this particular dispute added to his belief that there should be a national automotive worker’s union. Of course Bill Carron who was by then President of the AEU was totally opposed to the idea of industrial unions and when he found out that my father and his colleagues were meeting at about this time to extend the activities of the Motor Industry Combined Shop Stewards Group he declared their meeting illegal and ordered AEU shop Stewards not to attend. However, the meeting was held and amongst its objectives was one to explore ways in which the shop stewards might act together on key issues affecting the industry, particularly wage negotiations.