We Sell Our Time No More: Workers' Struggles Against Lean Production in the British Car Industry

Cover
......Page 1
We Sell Our Time No More......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Abbreviations and Acronyms......Page 14
Introduction......Page 16
Lean Production; the Context and the Promises......Page 17
Lean Production for Whom?......Page 23
Objectives of the Book......Page 28
Introduction......Page 31
Regimes of Control: From Piecework to Measured Day Work......Page 34
Contemporary Contrasts and Continuities......Page 35
Bargaining in the Context of Local Communities......Page 37
Wages, Unions and Conflicts in the British System......Page 41
Regimes of Control: Measured Day Work and the Rise of Lean Production......Page 49
Introduction......Page 53
Industrial Relations without Industrial Relations?......Page 54
Data and Method......Page 56
Union Responses in Each Company......Page 58
Rover: 'Embrace and Change'......Page 59
Vauxhall: 'Engage and Change'......Page 61
The Experience of NMTs on the Shopfloor: An Inter-Company Comparison......Page 64
The Acceptance of NMTs on the Shopfloor: An Inter-Company Comparison......Page 71
Concluding Remarks......Page 74
Appendix: Explanatory variables......Page 77
4. Striking Smarter and Harder: The New Industrail Relations of Lean Production? The 1995-6 Vauxhall Dispute......Page 79
Management Misjudges the Shopfloor......Page 82
Confronting Lean: Laying the Basis for Union Advance......Page 85
Conclusion......Page 94
The History of the Fight to Control Lean Production......Page 95
Addendum: Data Summary......Page 99
Introduction......Page 105
Lean Production......Page 113
Lean and Outsourcing......Page 115
Union, Shop Stewards and Lean" Capturing Hearts and Minds......Page 122
Comments from Ken Murphy......Page 135
Comments from John Cooper......Page 140
Comments from Gary Lindsay......Page 141
Introduction......Page 144
The Background to the Implementation of Rover Tomorrow......Page 146
Rover Tomorrow......Page 150
Implementation of Rover Tomorrow......Page 154
The 1998 Cowley Agreement......Page 157
A New Model, the Rover 75......Page 158
The Longbridge Crisis, October 1998......Page 159
Implementation of the 1998 Agreement......Page 161
Crisis 2000 - What Future for Longbridge?......Page 164
The Demonstration for Longbridge, 1 April 2000......Page 167
The Union Position Changes......Page 169
Introduction......Page 174
Embedding Lean Production at Vauxhall-GM, 1989-2001......Page 178
GM’S PROJECT OLYMPIA 2001, BMW AND PARTNERSHIP......Page 183
Worker Attributes......Page 186
Workplace Stress......Page 199
Conclusion......Page 211
Appendix: Project Olympia Framework Document......Page 212
Conclusion: Lean Production and the Individualisation of Workplace Stress: The New Class Struggle from Above......Page 216
Worker and Union Responses to Lean......Page 223
Challenging Lean Production as a Strategy and Ideology......Page 224
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY OF CAR WORKERS BY THE TGWU AND CARDIFF UNIVERSITY TRADE UNION RESEARCH UNIT (QUESTIONNAIRE 1996)......Page 229
APPENDIX 2: WORKFORCE SURVEY ON WORKPLACE ISSUES......Page 234
APPENDIX 3: WORKING ON THE LINE ‘AFTER FORDISM’: A DIARY......Page 238
Notes......Page 244
Bibliography......Page 255
Index......Page 267