The Collapse of British Leyland - The Reunion (BBC)

[FridgeFreezer]

Just heard this and thought a few folks might find it interesting - management and union still shouting at each other 40 years on!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lz6n

Quote

The Collapse of British Leyland

The Reunion

 

Kirsty Wark gathers management, workers and union leaders from the giant car-maker British Leyland.

In 1968, the Labour Government instigated the merger of two leading motoring manufacturers to form the British Leyland Motor Company. The ambition was to create an industrial powerhouse, capable of building more than a million cars a year and challenging the global dominance of America's Ford and Vauxhall.

At its peak, British Leyland employed 250,000 workers in scores of plants, but throughout the 1970s the model range was incoherent, bitter internal rivalries dogged production and industrial relations were atrocious. Successive governments poured in millions of pounds to stop the company from going bankrupt and forcing a spike in the dole queue.

In the 1980s, state support faded. Margaret Thatcher's government clamped down on the unions and privatised nationalised businesses. British Leyland was broken up and sold off, bringing an end to British-owned motor manufacturing.

Joining Kirsty to discuss those turbulent times are five people who were in the thick of it:

Harold Musgrove started in 1945 and rose through the ranks to become chairman and chief executive of what became the Austin Rover Group.

John Power started at Cowley in the 60s on the brand new Mini and became a shop steward on his first day.

Chris Green was 16 when he started as a commercial apprentice at British Leyland’s vast Longbridge plant.

Alison Harper was the company’s first female design sculptor.

The motoring journalist and former Top Gear presenter Chris Goffey test drove the cars and watched as the company fell by the wayside.

 

[Anderzander]

Thanks - I’ll have a listen later 😊

[Blanco]

That was interesting, ... (a couple of them clearly haven't 'moved on' 🙂) ...... more so in some ways because of the debates elsewhere here on the new defender and the ineos. We grey beards want a vehicle that is properly 'engineered', but the reality is that nowadays that these things are 'produced' and targeted at an 'audience' sector. The story of BL is a snapshot of the demise of the Austin and Morris engineering root(e)s and its replacement with the modern factory model. .... also there is the social history of the period and how the collective mood and attitude of government and workforce failed to find a way. James May did a great piece on putting the VW factory back together post war , it would be interesting to find 5 equivilent bods and compare their story of he 60's 70's and 80's in Stuttgart.