University of Newcastle upon Tyne TECHNICAL CHANGE AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF WORK: THE CASE OF THE BRITISH COAL INDUSTRY John Tomaney Submitted In fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies Department of Geography University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne 1991 1.j\l •t. 1 I........ iF I:; t :?j. :L•Ii X 4es L3Q3 'It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being' - John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, 1888. 'What', asked the French lecturer on the Science of Metals and Mining, 'is the most important thing to come out of a coal-mine?' 'Coal', replied the students. 'No', said the lecturer, Frederic Le Play, 'the most important thing is the coal-miner'. - F.D. Gould 'Le Play', Sociological Review, (1927) 1 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the suggestion that dramatic changes are occurring in the organisation of work and production, and that these amount to the emergence of a new 'post-Fordist' industrial paradigm. In particular, the claim that introduction of new forms of microelectronic-based technologies is leading to the emergence of new forms of skilled work, and that, as a result, old forms of industrial conflict are ameliorated, is analysed. The value of this conceptualisation of contemporary workplace change is questioned. A critique of the 'post-Fordist' argument is offered. This stresses: that new tendencies in the organisation of work can be discerned but that generally these are occurring alongside enduring forms of hierarchy and control; that the new forms of work and production represent a reformulation of traditional capitalist concerns of efficiency and control through the extension of 'flow principles'; and that the pattern of change in reality is highly uneven and spatially differentiated. An examination of the pattern of workplace restructuring in contemporary Britain reveals that it owed little to the unfolding of a new, universal industrial paradigm, and more to a peculiar concern with the alleged 'restrictive practices' of labour. Significant changes in work and industrial relations are acknowledged to have occurred, but are seen as owing less to the inherent properties of new technology than to historically developed pattern of social conflict and compromise. The study then offers more substantial evidence of the nature of workplace change through a case-study of the nationalised British coal industry. The post-war process of mechanisation and the rationalisation of work and industrial relations is analysed. It is argued that in the 1970s a strategy of technical change was initiated in which microelectronic-based technologies were important. The impact of this restructuring on two coalfields - the North East and Selby - is examined. Although centrally-determined, the pattern of restructuring was highly uneven and, in each case, was overlain by a concern with alleged labour indiscipline. Thus restructuring owed as much to dominant perceptions of the British industrial problem, as did it did to the demands of new technology. 11 CONTENTS Page Frontpiece 1. Abstract 1] Contents iii Acknowlegments iv List of Tables vi List of Figures vii Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: A New Paradigm of Work Organisation and Technology? 19 Chapter Three: Post-Fordist Britain? 100 Chapter Four: Technical Change and the Transformation of Work in the British coal industry 151 Chapter Five: The North East: 'The jewel in British Coal's Crown'? 222 Chapter Six: Selby: a post-Fordist coalmine? 297 Chapter Seven: Conclusion. 363 Appendix One: Method 386 Bibiliography 401 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S I should like to thank Ash Amin who supervised the preparation of this thesis and the research on which it is based. I have greatly valued his advice, support and friendship over the past few years. Above all he persuaded me I could do it. Others in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies have offered advice and support and have made it a pleasant place in which to work and study. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Neil Turnbull for discussing ideas, reading various papers and drafts and for company at Roker Park. Thanks also to all the footballers for providing a weekly respite from the treadmill: the boys done good. Beyond CURDS, many others assisted me in the conduct of my research. Jonathan Renouf shared his knowledge of the Durham miners and read many parts of the thesis in draft. During the course of the fieldwork I received help from members and officials of the North East NUM: Bill Etherington took an interest in the study and provided important statistical data which greatly helped in the preparation of Chapter Five; Howard Linklater at Westoe and Dave Temple at Murton gave their time and discussed issues at the outset of the research when my ignorance of mining matters was complete; Ross Forbes was irrepressible and offered help and welcome distraction in equal measure. My knowledge of the pre-powerloading era was greatly advanced through discussions with Gus Tomaney and especially his guided tours iv of Woody Close. The cooperation of Jon Winterton helped to facilitate the Selby case study and some of the interviews on which Chapter Six is partly based were conducted jointly. I am grateful also to Martin Longman, Head of Services, British Coal Selby Group for providing data, answering queries and showing me Stillingfleet. My Mam and Dad, Sylvia and Jim Tomaney, have always supported my endeavours and I am deeply grateful to them for the sacrifices they have made for me and for everything they have taught me. In particular, I was sustained throughout by my Mam's Yorkshire puddings, generally acknowledged to be the world's best. I owe an incalculable debt to Helen Stevens whose forbearance and understanding during this enterprise have been beyond measure. My failure to perform my domestic duties gradually worsened as 30th September approached, but from now on I'll be a new man. The research on which this thesis is based was conducted while I was in receipt of a studentship provided through the Economic and Social Research Council's Programme on Information and Communications Technology. V LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Labour Costs in Manufacturing, selected countries, 1960-86. Table 3.2 Investment and Capital Stock in the UK. Table 3.3 Total factor productivity growth in British manufacturing (hourly). Table 3.4 Total factor productivity in UK public sector. Table 4.1 Percentage of NCB output powerloaded, 1946-67 Table 4.2 Non-mechanical delays in coal production, September, 1977 Table 4.3 Impact of heavy duty equipment. Table 4.4 British Coal: costs of production. Table 5.1 North East Area: costs of production, 1985/6-1988/9. Table 5.2 North East Area: Main production indicators 1982/3/-1988/9. Table 5.3 Westoe Colliery: Main production indicators. Table 5.4 North East Area: Face results, September 1989. Table 5.5 Westoe Colliery: Manpower requirements of Rapid Loading System. Table 5.6 Westoe Colliery: Manpower requirements of Tube Conveyor System. Table 5.7 North East Area: Capital charges and bottom line costs of production. Table 6.1 Selby Mine: Comparative face data Table 6.2 Investment per man on books, North Yorkshire Area Area and Selby. Table 6.3 Selby Mine: Production delays vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Post-war productivity in coalmining. Figure 4.2 Heavy-duty investment and results. Figure 4.3 British Coal: machine available time trends. Figure 5.1 North East Deep Mines: Average daily output per face, 1981/2-1988/9. Figure 5.2 North East Deep Mines: Proportion of output from retreat faces, 1981/2-1988/9 Figure 5.3 North East Deep Mines: Average total length of face, 1981/2-1988/9. Figure 5.4 North East Deep Mines: Average square metres per shift, 1978/9-1987/8. Figure 5.5 North East Deep Mines: Average development metres per shift, 1981/2-1988/9. Figure 5.6 Wearmouth Colliery. Figure 5.7 Dawdon Colliery: number and propertion of men on books. Figure 5.8 North East Deep Mines: Machine available time, 1981/2-1988/9. Figure 5.9 North East Deep Mines: Shear section changes, 1987/8 Figure 5.10 Dawdon Colliery: CO3 face shearer unit changes. Figure 5.11 North East Deep MInes: Overtime as a proprtion of all shifts 1985/5 and 1989/90. Figure 6.1 The Selby Coalfield. Figure 6.2 Improvements in coal clearance equipment running time, Gascoigne Wood. Figure 6.3 Selby Mine: Run of mine production time losses, July-October, 1989. vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1. PREAMBLE Since the early 1970s the pace of change in the social and technical organisation of production has quickened to such a degree, that there now exists a popular view that the advanced capitalist societies face an historical turning point. Changes in the workplace are seen by some social scientists to be at the heart of wider processes of societal transformation. They point to the widespread dissemination of microelectronic-based production technologies and to radical innovations in the social organisation of work; developments providing the basis for reversing the crisis of profitability and productivity of the 1970s and securing the transition towards a new regime of capitalist development. Relatedly, the debate on the nature of work, too, has undergone a significant change. In the 1970s, to a large degree, the debate was dominated by Braverman's thesis, advanced in his seminal text Labor and Monopoly Capital (Braverman, 1974), that the organisation of work under capitalism is characterised by a long-term tendency toward deskilling, based on the growing application of Taylorist forms of labour control.