The Closure of Leyland Bathgate: a Challenge to Industrial Permanence
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Macdonald, Catriona L. (2013) The shopfloor experience of regional policy: work and industrial relations at the Bathgate motor plant, c.1961- 1986. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4638/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Shopfloor Experience of Regional Policy: Work and Industrial Relations at the Bathgate Motor Plant, c.1961-1986 ©The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk Catriona L. Macdonald Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social and Political Sciences College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow August 2013 i Abstract This thesis explores the experience of work and industrial relations at the British Motor Corporation’s commercial vehicle assembly plant at Bathgate in West Lothian, from its establishment in 1961 until its closure in 1986. The plant opened in Scotland as a result of a government regional development policy which sought to create jobs and ameliorate the rundown of heavy industry in areas of high unemployment. The thesis considers the role of such policy in shaping industrial development since 1945, and, using the oral history testimony of former Bathgate workers to examine the impact of economic and social change on Scotland’s industrial population, contributes to the regional policy literature by extending the analysis beyond questions about its efficacy and considering the experiences of the workers and communities directly affected by such initiatives. What emerges from this study of regional policy from the perspective of the shopfloor is the extent to which the plant’s establishment on a greenfield site, in an area of high unemployment, very much on the periphery of the UK motor industry and with little tradition of mass assembly production processes, shaped the subsequent evolution of its working conditions, industrial relations, and worker attitudes, as well as its position within the Bathgate community. The Bathgate experience therefore illuminates a number of key debates in the wider historiography of Britain and Scotland since 1945, not only in relation to regional policy itself, but also with regard to the motor industry, its industrial relations, and the development, in the post-war context of relatively high wages and the increasing stability of work, of a more typically ‘affluent’ working class. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part One explores some of the issues surrounding the plant’s establishment in West Lothian, particularly the regional policy aspects, and the plant’s position within and relationship to both the wider BMC – later British Leyland – organisation and the British motor industry more generally. Part Two draws extensively on the influential ‘affluent worker’ thesis, as well as the literature around the industrial relations of motor manufacturing, in developing and exploring questions related to the way in which work was experienced at Bathgate, and the extent to which the attitudes and behaviour of its workforce came to reflect ii those which typified the motor worker elsewhere. Throughout, the thesis engages with and adds nuance to debates over the role of shopfloor organisation and strike activity in damaging the performance of British motor manufacturing, and, by drawing on the oral testimony of former Bathgate workers themselves, offers a fresh perspective on the post-war experience of regional policy both in a particular, under-researched regional policy plant, and in Scotland and Britain more broadly. iii Contents Lists of tables, charts, and illustrations ...................................................................................... iii List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... vi Author’s declaration .................................................................................................................. vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................1 Part One – Establishing Bathgate Chapter One ................................................................................................................................23 West Lothian – a ‘County on the ‘Move’? Chapter Two ...............................................................................................................................70 Bathgate’s position in a changing motor industry Part Two – Working at Bathgate Chapter Three ...........................................................................................................................118 Experiences of work Chapter Four .............................................................................................................................152 Union representation and shopfloor organisation Chapter Five .............................................................................................................................191 The affluent motor worker in Scotland Conclusion ................................................................................................................................234 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................246 iv Tables, charts, and illustrations Tables 1:1 – percentage of total economically active population seeking work in West Lothian, Scotland and Great Britain, 1961-1981 ...........................................................................38 1:2 – indicators of regional divisions of production by function, c.1981 ..................................63 3:1 – classification of workers at BMC Bathgate, 1966 ..........................................................126 4:1 – shop steward representation at BMC Bathgate, 1966 .....................................................157 5:1 – annual labour cost differentials by plant, decentralised versus traditional areas ............223 5:2 – wage rates at factories of BLMC and some of its subsidiaries, August 1970 .................226 5:3 – average weekly earnings of male semi-skilled workers in engineering and metal manufacturing industries, in Scotland and the West Midlands, 1970-1978 ..................231 Charts 1:1 – reasons given by 92 overspill families for moving from Glasgow to West Lothian .......50 2:1 – causes of production shortfall across BL Bus and Truck, 1974 .......................................83 2:2 – number of unofficial stoppages and their causes at BMC Bathgate, 1961-1966 .............86 5:1 – rates of unemployment in Scotland, the West Midlands and the UK, 1959-1979 .........211 5:2 – average weekly earnings of male manual workers in manufacturing industries in Scotland and the West Midlands, as percentage of the UK average, 1967-1976 ..........230 Illustrations Cover page – men building trucks on the production line at BMC Bathgate, 1968. 1:1 – Main Street, Blackburn, mid-1960s ..................................................................................47 1:2 – new maisonettes on the Murrayfield Estate, Blackburn, early 1960s ...............................48 1:3 – Craigshill, Livingston, under construction, c.1966 ...........................................................60 2:1 – aerial view of Bathgate factory, c.1982.............................................................................92 Conclusion – Leyland Bathgate for sale following its closure, 1986 .......................................234 v Abbreviations AEU – Amalgamated Engineering Union AUEW – Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers BL – British Leyland BLMC – British Leyland Motor Corporation BLTUC – British Leyland Trade Union Committee BMC – British Motor Corporation BMCJSSC – British Motor Corporation Joint Shop Stewards’ Committee BMH – British Motor Holdings CKD – Complete Knock-Down CP – Communist Party DA – Development Area DATA – Draughtsman and Allied Technicians’ Association EEC – European Economic Community ETU – Electrical Trades’ Union FT – Financial Times GCAL – Glasgow Caledonian University GMB – General Municipal Boilermakers’ Union GMWU – General and Municipal Workers’ Union IDC – Industrial Development Certificate IRC – Industrial Reorganisation Corporation JSSC – Joint Shop Stewards’ Committee KD – Knock-Down LNT – London New Towns vi LVL – Leyland Vehicles Limited MACE – Media Archive for Central England MDW – Measured Day Work MIHT – Motor Industry Heritage Trust MIJLC – Motor Industry Joint Labour Council MNE – Multinational Enterprise MoL – Ministry of Labour MRC – Modern Records Centre NA – National Archives NAS – National Archives of Scotland NEDC – National Economic Development Council NUM – National Union of Mineworkers NUVB – National Union of Vehicle Builders PTU – Plumbing Trades’