‘Rootes to Peugeot Talbot: Critical Reflections on Linwood's ‘New Era”

Dr Alison Gilmour

Associate LecturerThe Open University in Scotland

Open University/Reid Kerr Social Sciences Seminar

Reid Kerr College PaisleyWednesday 9 March 2011

The Linwood Car Plant

Why Linwood?

• ‘Bathgate no more, Linwood no moreMethil no more, Irvine no more’[Letter from America, Charles and Craig Reid (The Proclaimers), 1984]

• ‘Scotland’s most notorious industrial graveyard.’ [C. H. Lee, Scotland and the United Kingdom: the economy and the union in the twentieth century (Manchester University Press, 1995)]

• ‘Linwood opens a new era.’ [The Scotsman, 1 October 1960]

Linwood’s first ‘new era’

‘Linwood opens a new era.’

[The Scotsman, 1 October 1960]

Key Questions

• What do we mean when we say a new era?

• What is significant about Linwood in terms of Scotland’s recent industrial past?

• To what extent did Linwood represent a new era?

• What lessons can be learned?

Regional Policy

• Announcement on 30 September 1960 that Rootes would commence production on Linwood site

• Regional policy initiatives directed Rootes to Linwood

• Linwood used to address high unemployment in the west of Scotland. Unemployment stood at 3.5 per cent in 1960 [Evening Times, 13 February 1981]

Period of optimism

‘The shape of things to comeCar plant, first step, then airport, Erskine bridge, new highways’[Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette, 7 October 1960]

‘The Rootes’ project will increase the industrial tempo throughout the West of Scotland.’ [Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette, 7 October 1960]

Introducing the Hillman ImpTop Ten in the Imp Parade

1. First ever aluminium 875 c.c. engine for more power.

2. Saloon and estate car combined.3. Baby-car parkability with four full-sized

seats.4. Engine at rear to eliminate power-loss,

give more car space.5. Eighty miles an hour and up to fifty

miles to the gallon.6. Independent four wheel suspension.7. No greasing and low-cost routine

servicing at only 5,000 mile intervals.8. Superb road-holding, stability and

steering.9. Full-sized wheels with broad, five and a

half inch tyre treads for traction and road-holding.

10. All synchromesh four-speed gearbox.

[Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette, 3 May 1963]

The Nature of Work I

In what ways did work in the factory represent a new era?

The Nature of Work II

A ‘clash of work cultures’?

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936)

Image from: (http://www.liriandersson.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Charles-Chaplin-Modern-times-1936.jpg)

The Nature of Work III

People just wanted to get it done and get home. You had to switch off. You could go nuts if you thought, “Oh here’s another car.”

[Oral History Interview, ‘George Wilson’, Interview 1.]

It was complete repetition aw the time. Complete repetition. Once ye got tae dae yer, know yer job, ye just went through it. Just like bein a robot.

[Oral History Interview, ‘Barry Stubbs’, Interview 1.]

The Nature of Work IVI worked with another chap right, so we worked … a half hour on, a half hour off.[Oral History Interview, ‘David Munroe’, Interview 1.]

An it got that, ye became so good at it, you and, see the, you an yer mate, there wis a man doin, ah wis doin the one side of the car goin along the line, an there wis another man doin the other side of the car goin along the line. It got, after a while that, eh ye got so good at the job ye could do the two sides, know? So ye used to work half hour breaks…

[Oral History Interview, ‘Douglas McKendrick’, Interview 1.]

Industrial relations: potential for a new era?

A new era or misplaced optimism?

Images from:http://www.urbexforums.co.uk/showthread.php/3015-Linwood-Car-Plant-Scotland-2008

Lessons to be learned?‘Phoenix from the Flames’

‘The closure of the car plant threw the area into considerable gloom, but within a few years new buildings, new industries and new jobs are being created on the site. The Phoenix, as the site is now known, is really flying.’The Glasgow Herald, 24 June 1999

‘Tesco agrees takeover of rundown town centre’

MSP Wendy Alexander "This is a huge opportunity for Linwood. This is about more than a new supermarket. Linwood needs a new library, a new hall, modern small shop units and a new health centre." The Glasgow Herald, 3 February 2007

Contact details and additional papers

• a.gilmour@open.ac.uk

• A. Gilmour, ‘Examining the ‘hard-boiled bunch’: work culture and industrial relations at the Linwood car plant, c. 1963 -1981’, PhD Thesis, 2009.

• A. Gilmour, ‘Consultation, co-operation and collaboration at Chrysler: a ‘new style’ of management of the Linwood car plant, Scottish Labour History, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2009, pp. 74-90

• A. Gilmour, ‘The Trouble with Linwood: Compliance and Coercion in the Car Plant, 1963-1981’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, 2007, pp. 75-93