Simon,
Bad news, Timothy R. Whisler (where did he lose that "t"?) was an academic,
and the study was part of a series of sociological studies published by the
University of Illinois Press. I just checked Amazon, and there is one copy
of the book, used at over $900! BTW, Amazon lists a publisher other then
UIP, but that was the publisher listed in the copy I borrowed.
If you Google him you will find that he has published a number of books on
the British car industry. Sorry for not quoting his full name.
Perhaps there were other factors, but Whisler makes it plain that the
treatment of the union workers was a factor in the decline of the industry.
Part of the larger arrogance of the men who started it at the turn of the
20th century. Derek Robinson, unfairly dubbed Red Robbo* *by the tabloid
press, was striking to protest mismanagement, Again, the workers new their
job, and aragant management wouldn't allow them a seat at the table.
Glad to see someone else interested in what happened to an industry that
could have been better.
Jack
On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:20 PM, Simon Matthews
<simon.d.matthews@gmail.com>wrote:
> . *When the shop stewards ran the floor everything was great. When
> > these self made men decided that the workers were too stupid to know how
> to
> > do their jobs, and took over the floor there was nothing but labor
> strife.
>
> I'm not so convinced that the blame can be laid so much on the A & M.
> I think there was plenty of blame to go around and during the days of
> "Red Robbo", I think the unions contributed much to BL's problems.
> It's possible that a confrontational culture was built by A & M's
> styles which later resulted in worse labor problems.
>
> I haven't read Whisler's book and I tried and failed to discover what
> his background is. He doesn't seem to have published anything else.
>
> Simon
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