Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:58:44.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Collective Bargaining and the Emergence of National Employer Organisation in the British Shipbuilding Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

John C. Lovell
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The article takes shipbuilding as a case study in the development of collective bargaining in Britain during the period 1889–1910. During the period shipbuilding employers established an effective national organisation and were successful in drawing the unions into an industry-wide disputes procedure. These developments occurred notwithstanding marked differences in outlook and interest as between the two main centres of activity in the industry, the Clyde and the northeast coast. The more militant posture of the Clyde employers towards the unions is examined in relation to a number of key issues – the apprentice and machine questions, managerial prerogative, wage control. In interpreting the general nature of the transition that occurred in the industry's labour relations, the article questions the view that the move to national bargaining was associated with a general commitment to the joint regulation of employment rules. It further suggests that the general level of employer acceptance of trade unionism may have been less than is sometimes assumed. These conclusions may well have a significance beyond the case in question.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , June 1991 , pp. 59 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1991

References

1 Clegg, H. A., Fox, A. and Thompson, A. F., A History of British Trade Unions since 1889 (Oxford, 1964), p. 471.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 363.

3 Sisson, Keith, The Management of Collective Bargaining: An International Comparison (Oxford, 1987), pp. 176–177.Google Scholar

4 See discussion in ibid., pp. 5–6.

5 Ibid., p. 12.

6 Pollard, S. and Robertson, P., The British Shipbuilding Industry, 1870–1914 (London, 1979), p. 45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association (S.R.N.A.) Archives at the National Maritime Museum, Minutes of National Federation of Shipbuilders and Engineers, 10 1889 to 11 1898.Google Scholar

8 Wigham, E., The Power to Manage (London, 1973), pp. 22–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also Zeitlin, Jonathan, “The Labour Strategies of British Engineering Employers, 1890–1922”, in Gospel, H. F. and Littler, C. R. (eds), Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations (London, 1983), p. 31.Google Scholar

9 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Circulars, CL460, 1907.Google Scholar

10 For a discussion of regional differences see Reid, A., “Employers' Strategies and Craft Production: the British Shipbuilding Industry 1870–1940”, unpublished paper presented to the Centre for Economic Policy Research workshop on Employment Strategies, Enterprise Management and Industrial Relations, Cambridge, 09 1987, pp. 5–6Google Scholar. Regular listings of launches in the trade journal, The Shipbuilder, give a good impression of regional specialisation during the period. There is a survey of the regions in Pollard, and Robertson, , The British Shipbuilding Industry, ch. 3.Google Scholar

11 Reid, , “Employers' Strategies and Craft Production”, p. 6.Google Scholar

12 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Circulars, CL508, 1907.Google Scholar

13 Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Hartlepool and Wear Shipbuilding Employers, Tyne and Wear Archives Department, Newcastle, Minutes of Conference with Clyde Ship-builders Association, 11 10 1906.Google Scholar

14 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Circulars, CL438, 1906Google Scholar. Clarke, J. F., “Labour Relations in Engineering and Shipbuilding on the North East Coast, 1850–1900” (unpublished MA thesis, University of Newcastle, 1966), pp. 455–456 and 460–461.Google Scholar

15 Cummings, D. C., A Historical Survey of the Boilermakers and Iron and Steel Ship-builders Society (Newcastle, 1905), pp. 190–191.Google Scholar

16 Industries in which unions secured an early foothold in the northeast include coal, iron, railways and shipping.

17 McClelland, K. and Reid, A., “Wood, Iron and Steel: Technology, Labour and Trade Union Organisation in the Shipbuilding Industry, 1840–1914’, in Harrison, R. and Zeitlin, J. (eds), Divisions of Labour: Skilled Workers and Technological Change in Nineteenth Century Britain (Brighton, 1985), pp. 175–176.Google Scholar

18 Reid, A., “The Division of Labour in the British Shipbuilding Industry, 1880–1920” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1980), pp. 184–191.Google Scholar

19 Dougan, D., The Shipwrights (Newcastle, 1975).Google Scholar

20 S.R.N. A. Archives, Correspondence between Clyde and Tyne Shipbuilders' Associations, 01 1898 to 06 1899.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., correspondence between Wear and Tyne Associations, October 1898 to May 1899.

22 Ibid., list of Members of Federated Associations, June 1901.

23 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 26 September 1899. Wigham, , The Power to Manage, p. 24.Google Scholar

24 Zeitlin, , “The Labour Strategies of British Engineering Employers”, pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

25 S.R.N. A. Archives, Minutes of National Federation, 12 09 1893.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 10 April 1900.

27 Ibid., Federation Minutes, Conference between S.E.F. and Boilermakers' Society, 3 May 1900.

28 Mortimer, J. E., History of the Boilermakers' Society, 2 vols (London, 1973), vol. 1, pp. 155–156.Google Scholar

29 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Circulars, CL221, 1903.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., Federation Minutes, Conference between S.E.F. and Boilermakers' Society, 3 May 1900. See also editorial in The Shipbuilder, vol. 1, no. 4 (1907), p. 190.Google Scholar

31 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 26 02 1902 and 13 08 1903.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., 13 May 1904.

33 Ibid., Federation Circulars, CL401, 1906: Minutes, 1 May 1906 and 9 March 1909.

34 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 26 November 1907 and 9 March 1909.

35 Ibid., Federation Circulars, CL564, 1908.

36 Ibid., CL576, 1908.

37 For a discussion of riveting work see McKinlay, A., “Employers and Skilled Workers in the Interwar Depression: Clydeside Engineering and Shipbuilding, 1919–1939” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Oxford University, 1986)Google Scholar, ch. 8. Parents preferred their sons to take apprenticeships as platers.

38 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, Conference between S.E.F. and Boilermakers' Society, 3 05 1900.Google Scholar

39 In 1904 apprentices were being used on new machinery in the Clyde, Tyne, Tees and Birkenhead districts. Ibid., Pneumatic Tool Committee Minutes, 2 June 1904.

40 McKinlay, , “Employers and Skilled Workers in the Interwar Depression”, pp. 312–313.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., p. 225. Also Lorenz, E. H., “The Labour Process and Industrial Relations in the British and French Shipbuilding Industries from 1880 to 1970” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1983), p. 68.Google Scholar

42 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 11 12 1902.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., Federation Circulars, Statement on Working of Pneumatic Tools in Shipyards, CL144, 1902.

44 Reid, , “Employers' Strategies and Craft Production”, p. 11.Google Scholar

45 McClelland, and Reid, , “Wood, Iron and Steel”, pp. 173–174.Google Scholar

46 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 26 02 1902.Google Scholar

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid., 16 June 1903.

49 Ibid., Pneumatic Tool Committee Minutes, 13 March 1902.

50 Ibid., 10 October 1902.

51 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 16 June 1903.

52 Ibid., Pneumatic Tool Committee Minutes, 2 June 1904.

53 Ibid., Federation Circulars, CL275, 1904.

54 Ibid., Pneumatic Tool Committee Minutes, 13 June 1904.

55 Ibid., 23 August 1904; Circulars, CL304, 1904.

56 Ibid., Circulars, CL308, 1904.

57 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 23 September 1904 and 16 March 1905.

58 Ibid., Circulars, C349, 379 and 386, 1905; Pneumatic Tool Committee Minutes, 13 10 1905.Google Scholar

59 Lorenz, , “The Labour Process and Industrial Relations in the British and French Shipbuilding Industries”, pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

60 S.R.N. A. Archives, Pneumatic Tool Committee Minutes, 2 06 1904 and 24 03 1905.Google Scholar

61 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 10 April 1900.

62 Ibid., Minutes of National Federation, 8 and 30 October 1891.

63 Tyne Shipbuilders Association, Minutes, Tyne and Wear Archives Department, Newcastle, 14 02 and 24 04 1902.Google Scholar

64 Later published in book form; Pratt, E. A., Trade Unionism and British Industry (London, 1904).Google Scholar

65 S.R.N. A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 13 08 1903.Google Scholar

66 Tyne Shipbuilders Association, Minutes, 13 11 1902.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., 21 November 1902.

68 See Melling, J., “Employers, Industrial Welfare, and the Struggle for Workplace Control in British Industry, 1880–1920”Google Scholar, in Gospel, and Littler, (eds), Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations, p. 61Google Scholar. Also Reid, , “Employers's trategies and Craft Production”, pp. 6–7Google Scholar, and McKinlay, , “Employers and Skilled Workers in the Interwar Depression”, pp. 223–225.Google Scholar

69 For the competitive strength of the British industry see Pollard, S., “British and World Shipbuilding, 1890–1914: a Study in Comparative Costs”, Journal of Economic History, 17 (1957), pp. 426–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

70 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, Meetings of Special Committee regarding Conditions of Labour in Shipyards, 2 10 1903 and 20 01 1904.Google Scholar

71 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 22 April 1903; Circulars, CL268, 1904; Parliamentary Committee Report for 1904.Google Scholar

72 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 13 May 1904.

73 Ibid., Joint Meeting with E.E.F. 22 September 1904; Circulars, CL401, 1906.Google Scholar

74 See McKinlay, A. and Zeitlin, J., “The Meanings of Managerial Prerogative: Industrial Relations and the Organisation of Work in British Engineering, 1880–1939”, Business History, 31 (1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, no. 2. Also Zeitlin, J., “The Internal Politics of Employer Organisation: the Engineering Employers' Federation, 1896–1939”, unpublished paper presented to the C.E.P.R. workshop on Employment Strategies, Enterprise Management and Industrial Relations, Cambridge, 09 1987, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

75 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 2 11 1906Google Scholar; Circulars CL508, 1907, and CL559, 1908.Google Scholar

76 Lorenz, , “The Labour Process and Industrial Relations in the British and French Shipbuilding Industries”, p. 68Google Scholar. For a valuable discussion of the labour problems con-fronting American employers who did succeed in breaking the hold of craft unions see Lazonick, W. H., “Technological Change and the Control of Work: The Development of Capital–Labour Relations in U.S. Mass Production Industries”Google Scholar, in Gospel, and Littler, , Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations, pp. 111–136.Google Scholar

77 McKinlay, , “Employers and Skilled Workers in the Interwar Depression”, pp. 272–279.Google Scholar

78 See, for example, discussion in Zeitlin, J., “From Labour History to the History of Industrial Relations”, Economic History Review, 2nd series, XL (1987), no. 2, pp. 173–176.Google Scholar

79 Tyne Shipbuilders Association, Minutes, 14 08 1902.Google Scholar

80 Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Hartlepool and Wear Shipbuilding Employers, Minutes, 11 and 18 10 1906.Google Scholar

81 The Shipbuilder, 1 (1907), no. 4, pp. 189–191.Google Scholar

82 Pollard, and Robertson, , The British Shipbuilding Industry, ch. 6.Google Scholar

83 Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Wear, Minutes, 12 12 1905 and 4 07 1906.Google Scholar

84 Ibid., 12 December 1905.

85 Tees and Hartlepool Shipbuilders Association, Minutes, Tyne and Wear Archives Department, Newcastle, 3 and 12 12 1906, 11 01 and 1 03 1907.Google Scholar

86 Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Wear, Minutes, 25 03 and 17 04 1907.Google Scholar

87 Ibid., 25 March 1907.

88 Tees and Hartlepool Shipbuilders Association, Minutes, 1 and 26 03 1907.Google Scholar

89 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 2 05, 14 06 and 10 07 1907.Google Scholar

90 Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Wear, Minutes, 25 03 1907.Google Scholar

91 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 2 and 24 05, 14 06 1907.Google Scholar

92 Ibid., 1 and 8 May 1906.

93 Ibid., 1, 12, 15, 19, 20 and 23 August, 17 September 1907; Circulars, CL521, 1907.Google Scholar

94 Ibid., Circulars, CL476, 1907.

95 Ibid., Minutes, 10 September 1907.

96 Ibid., 17 September, 10 and 24 October, 26 November, 11 and 27 December 1907.

97 Ibid., 6 February, 6 March 1908; Circulars, CL556 and 559, 1908.Google Scholar

98 Ibid., Minutes, 6 February and 6 March 1908.

99 Ibid., Circulars, CL568, 1908.

100 Ibid., Minutes, 6, 17 and 25 March, 24 April, 1 and 28 May 1908.

101 Ibid., Minutes, 28 October, 1 December 1908, 9 March 1909; Circulars, not numbered, dated 26 06, 17 08 and 8 10 1908.Google Scholar

102 Ibid., Minutes, 9 March 1909.

103 Ibid., Circulars, 17 August 1908.

104 Webb Trade Union Collection, at the British Library of Political and Economic Science, Section B, vol. 88, Material Relating to Shipyard Trades Agreement, Verbatim Report of Conference held on 28 10 1908.Google Scholar

105 Ibid., Also S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 1 December 1908; Circulars, 8 10 1908.Google Scholar

106 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 17 03, 24 04, 16 12 1908, 9 03 1909Google Scholar; Conferences between S.E.F. and Shipyard Trades Committee, 22 02 and 3 03 1910Google Scholar; Circulars, CL662, 1909Google Scholar; Central Conference Committee Papers, 09 1909.Google Scholar

107 Ibid., Federation Minutes, 18 May 1910.

108 Ibid., 27 May, 3 August, 1 September 1910.

109 Ibid., 11 May 1910.

110 Ibid., 12 August 1907.

111 Ibid., 6 June, 3 and 16 August 1910. Tees and Hartlepool Shipbuilders Association, Minutes, 12 08 1910.Google Scholar

112 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 31 03 1910.Google Scholar

113 Ibid., 1 September 1910.

114 Ibid., 11 May 1910; Circulars, 19 08 1910Google Scholar. During the preceding boom of 1906 employers had also complained of frequent work stoppages by members of the Boilermakers' Society; northeastern employers had established an emergency committee to deal with strikes in breach of the 1894 agreement. Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Wear, Minutes, 12 12 1905, 20 02, 10 04 and 31 05 1906.Google Scholar

115 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 1 and 14 09 1910.Google Scholar

116 Ibid., 1 and 14 September 1910; Circulars, 12 09 1910Google Scholar. Lorenz, , “The Labour Process and Industrial Relations in the British and French Shipbuilding Industries”, p. 64.Google Scholar

117 It did so in the case of strikes by riveters at Palmers in 1909. S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 24 11 1909.Google Scholar

118 Ibid., 11 and 18 May, 6 June, 12 July and 16 August 1910.

119 Ibid., Circulars, 19 August 1910.

120 Use of the Isherwood system was related to the growing market for oil tankers. For details as to its novelty see The Shipbuilder, vol. 2, no. 8 (1908), pp. 263–264Google Scholar. For Armstrong dispute and background, S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 14 09 1909, 11 and 28 07, 1 09 1910Google Scholar; Circulars, 30 08 1910.Google Scholar

121 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 16 08 1910.Google Scholar

122 Mortimer, J. E., History of the Boilermakers' Society, (London, 1982), vol. 2, p. 39.Google Scholar

123 Clegg, H. A., A History of British Trade Unions since 1889 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 79–81.Google Scholar

124 This is not to suggest that craft unions were unaware of certain advantages to be gained by the joint regulation of working rules, where such regulation could be obtained on terms satisfactory to themselves. See, for example, discussion in Sisson, The Management of Collective Bargaining, p. 163.

125 For a discussion emphasising the importance of formal union organisation in the enforcement of job controls see Zeitlin, , “From Labour History to the History of Industrial Relations”, pp. 165–173Google Scholar. For the contrary view, stressing the importance of informal worker activity independent of union organisation, see especially Price, R., Masters, Unions and Men (Cambridge, 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

126 Zeitlin, , “The Labour Strategies of British Engineering Employers”, p. 34.Google Scholar

127 Clegg, , Fox, and Thompson, , A History of British Trade Unions since 1889, pp. 166–167.Google Scholar

128 Zeitlin, , “The Labour Strategies of British Engineering Employers”, pp. 35–45.Google Scholar

129 S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Minutes, 23 09 1904, 16 03 and 23 05 1905.Google Scholar

130 Joint Meetings of Tyne, Tees and Wear, Minutes, Conference with Clyde Shipbuilders Association, 11 10 1906.Google Scholar

131 Clegg, , Fox, and Thompson, , A History of British Trade Unions since 1889, p. 471Google Scholar. For the shipbuilding case, a balanced appraisal of this issue is to be found in Lorenz, , “The Labour Process and Industrial Relations in the British and French Shipbuilding Industries”, pp. 63–67.Google Scholar

132 They did so, for example, during negotiations to end the 1910 lock-out. S.R.N.A. Archives, Federation Circulars, 17 11 1910Google Scholar. See also Lorenz, , “The Labour Process and Industrial Relations in the British and French Shipbuilding Industries”, p. 66.Google Scholar

133 In the case of this union an appearance of extreme moderation in leadership was combined with exceptionally strong trade defences. For a valuable discussion of the relationship between these aspects see Reid, , “The Division of Labour in the British Shipbuilding Industry”, pp. 227–231.Google Scholar