A bit of history

[NutmegCT]

Happy Thanksgiving folks.

I found this British Pathé newsreel showing the City of Coventry in 1959, slowly but proudly recovering from the wartime devastation.

Second half of the film is the Standard factory, showing Standards, Triumphs, and Fergusons (!) rolling off the line. I swear one of those TR3s sure looks familiar.

https://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=78581

Tom

 

[mallard]

Thanks for the film Tom.

 

[DougF]

Interesting, a town known for Triumphs, Fergusons, a naked lady on horseback, and peeping toms. Can't say they had the best marketing team working on the video.
Enjoyed it!

 

[TRDejaVu]

The film crew lucked out as it caught the car factory in-between strikes - a very short window of opportunity.

 

[DrEntropy]

That was awful, Ian.

...cruel.

but fair. :wink:

Labour killed the English auto industry. Idiots.

 

[startech47]

Looks like a repeat on this side of the pond.

 

[DrEntropy]

Yup. Just a bigger juggernaut to stop. More momentum, so to speak.

 

[Tinkerman]

That was great Tom, to bad it was so short. I would enjoyed more on the production lines.

thanks, Tinkerman

 

[aeronca65t]

Neat. I have a cousin in Coventry. I'll send him the link.

......

Labour killed the English auto industry. Idiots.

I don't agree.

Labour didn't help things....they surely hurt, if fact.

But management killed the British car industry with pathetic "management".
I'd also say that quality engineering and manufacturabilty was sub-par compared to US and Japanese products during the 70s and 80s. These things are controlled by management, not labour.

 

[startech47]

Reflecting I agree with Nial. Bad management and although the Unions were a good thing when they were created it is not the case anymore.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

Quality manufacturing could have been influenced by labour. If the union members did not give a d*mn and the union rules stopped the management from making the changes, personal or procedural, required to fix the problem…

Any contract had to be agreed to by the management, so they are still not off the hook.

 

[TR3driver]

Well, the government shares the blame as well, IMO. Labor unions basically use legalized blackmail to get what they want : Ie their members accept a job position with certain duties for certain pay, and then say "Pay us more for doing less or we will immobilize your entire company". And "Oh, by the way, you cannot fire us for refusing to do the job that we agreed to do, we're the union."

Had it been legal to just fire everyone that refused to do the job that they agreed to do; and hire some of those millions of people that were anxious to take any job; things would have gone a lot differently.

Detroit is learning the same lesson ... all the jobs have run away to "right to work" states. I wonder why?

 

[startech47]

And those car companies seem to be selling cars and making a profit.

 

[Marvin Gruber]

Good film, wish it were longer. Dad had a Triumph 10 like in the film. That brought back some good memories.

Marv

 

[Roger]

Many years ago I went, with some friends from a Motor Club, on a visit to Austin at Longbridge. They were making 1100s on the line we saw, though nobody was making anything in the wooden cabins the men had constructed so some of them could sleep while they were supposed to be working. This was known to management, but any attempt to stop the practice would result in immediate stoppage of the line and possible a strike. Heaven alone knows, there were enough of them.
Sorry, but unless you worked in a union shop and saw some of the ridiculous demarkation rules and other restrictive practices, it's hard to imagine the power of the unions, and the Trade Union Congress. Until Margaret Thatcher saw them off, of course.
I agree management had a lot to do with the problem, but I believe the unions destroyed the British motor industry, in part by not permitting managers to manage.