The meanings of managerial prerogative: Industrial relations and the organisation of work in british engineering, 1880–1939

Business History

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 1989, Pages 32-47

  McKinlay, Alan ^a   Zeitlin, Jonathan ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 5844395894     PISSN: 00076791     EISSN: 17437938     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00076798900000031     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. H. Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capitalism (New York, 1974).
2. For related but more sophisticated reformulations of this general approach, see, inter alia, M. Burawoy, The Politics of Production, (London, 1985);
3. A. Friedman, Industry and Labour (London, 1977);
4. D. Gordon, R. Edwards and M. Reich, Segmented Work, Divided Workers (Cambridge, 1982).
5. For overviews of these criticisms, see S. Wood (ed.), The Degradation of Work? Skill, Deskilling and the Labour Process (London, 1982);
6. D. Knights, H. Willmott and D. Collinson (eds.), Job Redesign: Critical Perspectives on the Labour Process (Aldershot, 1985);
7. and J. Zeitlin, ‘Social Theory and the History of Work’, Social History, Vol.8, No.3 (1983), pp. 365-74.
8. J. Zeitlin, ‘From Labour History to the History of Industrial Relations’, Economic History Review, Vol. XL, No.2 (1987), pp. 159-84.
9. K. Burgess, The Challenge of Labour (London, 1980);
10. R.Q. Gray, The Labour Aristocracy in Victorian Edinburgh (Oxford, 1976);
11. J. Storey, Managerial Prerogative and the Question of Control (London, 1983).
12. J. Hinton, The First Shop Stewards’ Movement (London, 1973);
13. J.B. Jeffreys, The Story of the Engineers (London, 1946);
14. R. McKibbin, ‘Why was there no Marxism in Great Britain?’, English Historical Review, No.99 (1984), pp. 297, 331.
15. S.B. Saul, ‘The Market and the Development of the Mechanical Engineering Industries in Britain, 1760-1914’, Economic History Review, Vol.20, No.2 (1967), pp. 110-30;
16. ‘Engineering’, in D.H. Aldcroft (ed.), The Development of British Industry and Foreign Competition, 1875–1914 (London, 1968), pp. 186-237;
17. R. Floud, The British Machine Tool Industry, 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 1976).
18. K. Burgess, The Origins of British Industrial Relations (London, 1975), pp. 1-85;
19. J. Zeitlin, ‘Engineers and Compositors: A Comparison’, in R. Harrison and J. Zeitlin (eds.), Divisions of Labour: Skilled Workers in Nineteenth Century Britain (Brighton, 1985), pp. 198-206;
20. W. Knox, ‘Apprenticeship and Deskilling in Britain’, International Review of Social History, Vol. XXXI (1986), pp. 172–5.
21. B.C.M. Weekes, ‘The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 1880-1914’, Ph.D thesis, University of Warwick, 1970, pp. 61-80;
22. E. Wigham, The Power to Manage (London, 1973), pp. 123-4.
23. S.B. Saul, ‘The American Impact on British Industry, 1895-1914’, Business History, Vol. III, No.1 (1960), pp. 19-38; see also the sources cited in note 6.
24. J. Zeitlin, ‘The Labour Strategies of British Engineering Employers, 1890-1922’, in H. Gospel and C. Litter (eds.), Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations (London, 1983), pp. 26-33; idem
25. ‘Lt.-Col. Henry Clement Swinerton Dyer’, in D. Jeremy (ed.), The Dictionary of Business Biography Vol. II (London, 1984), pp. 217-21;
26. Wigham, op. cit., pp. 20-42.
27. EEF, List of the Federated Engineering and Shipbuilding Employers who Resisted the Demand for a 48 Hours Working Week (London, 1898); ‘Railway Companies and the 48 Hours Demand, 1897’, EEF Archives, microfilm H(10)1; Wigham, op. cit., pp. 47-9.
28. Zeitlin, ‘Labour Strategies’, op. cit., pp. 33-4, and the sources cited therein.
29. Wigham, op. cit., pp. 54-62;
30. H.A. Clegg, A. Fox and A. Thompson, A History of British Trade Unions since 1889, Vol.1 (Oxford, 1964), pp. 161-7.
31. For fears of government intervention as a constraint on EEF strategy after 1906, see A. Smith, ‘Present Procedure in Dealing with Wages Questions’ (n.d., 1908), EEF C(4)11;
32. ‘Circular Letter to Local Associations on Wages Questions’, 30 April 1913, EEF W(2)2.
33. Zeitlin, ‘Labour Strategies’, op. cit., pp. 35-45;
34. idem., ‘Between Flexibility and Mass Production: Product, Production and Labour Strategies in British Engineering, 1880-1939’
35. unpublished paper presented to the ‘International Working Group on Historical Alternatives to Mass Production’, Lyon, 24–6 June 1988.
36. Verbatim Report of Conferences between the EEF and the ASE, SEWS and UMWA, December-May 1900; transcripts of further conferences re amendments to the Terms of Settlement, 1906-7, EEF A(2)5-9.
37. Transcripts of conferences with the ASE and other unions on disputes procedure and Terms of Agreement, February-April 1914, EEF A(4)7 and 11; memoranda and circular letters on the reduction of working hours, 1913–14, EEF H(1); A. Smith to W. Weir, 22 April 1914, EEF E(1)29; EEF Conference Committee Minutes, 9–10 July 1914;
38. J.R. Richmond (Weirs), Some Aspects of Labour and its Claims in the Engineering Industry, presidential address to Glasgow University Engineering Society, (1916–1917), pp. 5-7.
39. A. Reid, ‘Dilution, Trade Unionism and the State in Britain during the First World War’, in S. Tolliday and J. Zeitlin (eds.), Shopfloor Bargaining and the State (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 60-66;
40. J. Turner, ‘The Politics of “Organised Business” in the First World War’, in J. Turner (ed.), Businessmen and Politics (London, 1984), pp. 39-43.
41. Memoranda, correspondence and meetings of Clyde employers, 1915, EEF W(4)5-6;
42. J.R. Richmond to A.P. Henderson, 12 Aug. 1916
43. and J.E. Thorneycroft to A. Smith, 17 Aug. 1916, EEF C(2)5; EEF Emergency Committee Minutes, 25 Aug., 15 Sept. and 24 Nov. 1916
44. For a fuller account, see Wigham, op. cit., pp. 86-97;
45. and J. Zeitlin, ‘The Internal Politics of Employer Organization: The Engineering Employers’ Federation, 1896-1939’, in S. Tolliday and J. Zeitlin (eds.), The Power to Manage? Employers and Industrial Relations in Comparative - Historical Perspective (forthcoming, London, 1989).
46. Glasgow Herald, 12 April, 1921, cited in G. Rubin, War, Law, and Labour (Oxford, 1987), p. 242.
47. C. More, Skill and the English Working Class, 1870–1914 (London, 1980), p. 32;
48. A. McKinlay, ‘Employers and Skilled Workers in the Inter-War Depression: Engineering and Shipbuilding on Clydeside, 1919-1939’, D. Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1986, pp. 64-6.
49. EEF, ‘Memorandum on Post-War Industrial Problems’, and ‘Tabulation of Replies from Local Associations’, September 1916, EEF 1(1)7;
50. Management Committee Report No.56, 28 Aug. 1917, precis of responses from local associations to the Whitley Report, 1(1)9;
51. ‘Post-War Industrial Problems’, interim report by special sub-committee, 21 Jan. 1918, EEF 1(1)12;
52. A. Smith to V. Caillard, 24 Sept. 1918, EEF S(4)19;
53. Smith to J. Barr, 22 Oct. 1918, EEF C(6) 1918.
54. On EEF internal reforms, see Management Committee Minutes, 31 Aug. 1917; and A.J. McLvor, ‘Employers’ Associations and Industrial Relations in Lancashire’, Ph.D thesis, Manchester, 1983, pp. 372-6.
55. For the EEF’s relations with other employers’ organisations, see Turner, op. cit.; T. Rodgers, ‘Work and Welfare: The National Confederation of Employers’ Organisations and the Unemployment Question, 1919-1936’, Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh, 1981, pp. 14-25; EEF C(2)2, C(8)1-2, 1(1)12 and S(3)6.
56. Transcripts of conferences between the EEF, the Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation and various trade unions, Oct.-Nov. 1918, EEF H(3)17.
57. ‘Industrial Unrest’, EEF circular letter to local associations, 11 Aug. 1919.
58. Wigham, op. cit., pp. 114-15;
59. J. Melling, ‘Employers and the Rise of Supervisory Unionism’, in C.J. Wrigley (ed.), A History of British Industrial Relations, Vol. II; 1914–39 (Brighton, 1986), pp. 254-6.
60. The evolution of the Federation’s bargaining position and the union response can be followed in the multi-volume transcripts of the national negotiations on working conditions 1919-24 in the EEFcollection at the Modern Recordscentre, University of Warwick, MSS. 2371111311 and 23711112/4-13. The clearest accounts of Smith’s overall strategy appear in his speeches to the London and District Engineering Employers’ Association, 17 Dec. 1918, and the North-West Engineering Trades Employers’ Association (NWETEA), 25 Jan. 1921, EEF G(1)7 and 8. For a fuller analysis, see J. Zeitlin, The Triumph of Adversarial Bargaining: Industrial Relations in British Engineering, 1880-1939 (Oxford, forthcoming).
61. Transcript of a special conference between the EEF and engineering trade unions, 29–30 Sept. 1920.
62. For dissent by leading employers to Smith’s policies, see Birmingham and District Engineering Employers’ Associations to EEF 16 Aug. 1919, EEF C(8)2; ‘Replies from Associations to Circular Letter of 1 Oct. 1920 re Overtime and Night Shift Agreement’. EEF W(9)4. App. 26;
63. letters to Smith from Sir H. Spencer (2 and 31 Dec. 1920), P.W. Robson (15 and 23 Dec. 1920), J.R. Richmond (21 Dec. 1920), all in C(6) 1920; and transcript of a general meeting of the NWETEA, 25 Jan. 1921, from which the quotation is taken.
64. AEU Executive Council Minutes, 31 Aug., 6 and 28 Sept., 9 and 10 Oct., 22 and 24 Nov., 21–23 Dec. 1920.
65. Transcript of a special conference between the EEF and the AEU, 12–13 Jan. 1921; EEF Management Committee Minutes, 17 and 25 Feb. 1921.
66. N.W.E.T.E.A., Executive Committee Minutes, 19 April 1921; F. Robson to Smith, 22 May and 15 Sept. 1921, EEF C(6)1921;
67. A.M. Bellamy to Smith, 24 Nov. 1921, EEF C(6)1921; ‘Replies by Associations to Questionnaire dated 30 Jan. 1922’, EEF M(19), App. 2;
68. A. Herbert to Smith, 25 March 1922, EEF M (19)2.
69. See also H.A. Clegg, A History of British Trade Union since 1889, Vol. II (Oxford, 1985), p. 339.
70. E. Wigham, op. cit., pp. 119-27;
71. McKinlay, op. cit., pp. 97-111.
72. Engineering and National Employers’ Federation, Thirty years of Industrial Conciliation (London, 1927); p. 4.
73. R. Martin, Communism and the British Trade Unions, 1924–1933 (Oxford, 1969);
74. A. McKinlay, op. cit., pp. 143–53.
75. P. Ryan, ‘Apprenticeship and Industrial Relations in British Engineering: The Early Interwar Period’, unpublished paper presented to the Workshop on Child Labour and Apprenticeship, University of Essex, May 1986; Special Committee in Regard to the Supply, Selection and Training of Apprentices, 1927–29, EEF A(7)91; Subcommittee on Apprentices and Young Persons, 1933–36, EEF A(7)111; meetings, memoranda and correspondence on grading of machine operations, 1923–30, EEF M(22)1.
76. N.W.E.T.E.A., Case Papers, June 1924, Folio 23/3.
77. S. Tolliday, ‘Management and Labour in Britain 1896-1939’, in S. Tolliday and J. Zeitlin (eds.), The Automobile Industry and its Workers (Oxford, 1986), pp. 37-40;
78. W. Lewchuk, American Technology and the British Vehicle Industry (Cambridge, 1987), Ch.8.
79. A. McKinlay, op. cit., pp. 164-88;
80. R. Croucher, Engineers at War 1939–1945 (London, 1982), pp. 24-9.
81. H. Gospel, ‘Employers’ Organisations: Their Growth and Function in the British System of Industrial Relations, 1918-1939’, Ph.D., London, 1974, pp. 180-183.
82. A. McKinlay, ‘From Industrial Serf to Wage Labourer: The 1937 Apprentices’ Revolt in Britain’, International Review of Social History, Vol. XXXI (1986), pp. 1-18.