Similar practices included the gang. system whereby workers pool ed wages and established a measure of collective control over their jobs.
The success of plant-based strike actions in maintaining and improving wages conditions numbers of Coventry workers helped fuel the illusion that the Coventry workforce could sort out its problems without reference to national politics or the unions at national level.
As the recession started to bite at the beginning of the '70s the bosses began to chip away at the concessions won by Coventry workers during the boom.
In 1971 the Coventry Toolroom Agreement was ended. In the same period the 'gang' system was smashed, measured day work was introduced, and workers were forced to accept large scale redundancies.
In the early '70s the combativity of the workforce was high and a large number of local strikes maintained levels alla won agreements, but this success shortlived.
By the end of the decade Coventry had plumetted in the wages league, while local employers were finding it easier abandon agreements and introduce speed up and labour mobility. Components Edwardes' success in BL ÷ where the tiny wage rise earlier this year was linked to a package of management prerogatives on working practices -las been repeated across the components industry.
Increasingly managements seek to bypass shop stewards and convenors through the use of ballots, personal letters, and mass media.
The impact of the new recession in Coventry has been dramatic local building industry has collapsed, the closure of BL's Canley plant, with 9,000 phased • redundancies streamlining, at the other BL and Talbot car plants in Coventry not only lengthen the dole queues but have a knock-on effect in the whole car components industry, which is for men.