British Leyland
Discussion
Breadvan72 said:
A worker's life (mostly) in BL Tale:
My dad arrived in the UK from Dublin in the late 1950s. He went from the building sites (he worked on Junction 1 of the M1) into Lucas in Birmingham. He started as a labourer, and was successively lathe operator, tool setter, and tool maker. He was a shop steward for a while. I can recall the Christmas party for workers' children at the factory, and later the works Panto trips.
Lucas funded my dad to go to night school and take exams, and he moved to the white collar world as a time and motion guy, and carried on as an Industrial Engineer, working on production processes. This meant a pay cut, obviously! My uncle was a tool setter at Jaguar and wore bespoke suits, played golf, and changed his car for a new one every year. My dad was now in management and wore off the peg suits, had no time for hobbies, and drove the s
ttiest old cars imaginable.
My dad moved to Rootes, then located near the BSA factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. He worked on the fastback Sunbeam Rapier. Then he left to run an electrical business. That failed after the oil crisis when banks called in small business loans, and he went back to his old job at Rootes-Chrysler. He was sent to Linwood as part of a trouble shooting team, and commuted at weekends by BAC 111. Soon afterwards he moved to BL, and worked in all divisions except for Jag and Land Rover (even though we lived a few hundred metres from the Land Rover factory). He briefly ran a factory making (very flammable) foam for seats.
At Longbridge, my dad, a staunch union man himself but now in middle management, had to deal with Red Robbo and the two almost came to blows.
My Dad was appointed as a management lecturer at BL's staff college. That was his favourite job. He was headhunted from there by Michael Edwardes to be part of a roving trouble shooting team of managers.
My dad blames Lord Stokes, the pre Edwardes senior managers, and Thatcher (for excessive meddling) for the collapse of BL. He says the unions took the piss, but the bad management was worse. The design and engineering ideas were often great, but the execution was often poor, and short term pursuit of profits led to neglect of investment. Group meetings between different divisions were fractious, as the different brands treated each other as rivals. Jaguar spent the whole time plotting ways to escape.
By the 80s, my dad was running a factory making exhausts. He was made redundant and immediately given his job back as a self employed consultant. He finally left the car trade and went to run a pub. When Rover finally failed (Rover had the biggest selling car in the UK on the day it went bust), my dad was not surprised, as the blokes who had bought it were well known whamster scamsters.
Now he is retired in Birmingham and is not well, but he is still full of stories. He loves cars. He can no longer work on them. He has a 2009 Fiesta with an autobox that is surprisingly good, except uphill.
Fantastic post, I really enjoyed reading that. It's nice to hear the perspective of someone who was actually in the thick of it at the time. My dad arrived in the UK from Dublin in the late 1950s. He went from the building sites (he worked on Junction 1 of the M1) into Lucas in Birmingham. He started as a labourer, and was successively lathe operator, tool setter, and tool maker. He was a shop steward for a while. I can recall the Christmas party for workers' children at the factory, and later the works Panto trips.
Lucas funded my dad to go to night school and take exams, and he moved to the white collar world as a time and motion guy, and carried on as an Industrial Engineer, working on production processes. This meant a pay cut, obviously! My uncle was a tool setter at Jaguar and wore bespoke suits, played golf, and changed his car for a new one every year. My dad was now in management and wore off the peg suits, had no time for hobbies, and drove the s
ttiest old cars imaginable. My dad moved to Rootes, then located near the BSA factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. He worked on the fastback Sunbeam Rapier. Then he left to run an electrical business. That failed after the oil crisis when banks called in small business loans, and he went back to his old job at Rootes-Chrysler. He was sent to Linwood as part of a trouble shooting team, and commuted at weekends by BAC 111. Soon afterwards he moved to BL, and worked in all divisions except for Jag and Land Rover (even though we lived a few hundred metres from the Land Rover factory). He briefly ran a factory making (very flammable) foam for seats.
At Longbridge, my dad, a staunch union man himself but now in middle management, had to deal with Red Robbo and the two almost came to blows.
My Dad was appointed as a management lecturer at BL's staff college. That was his favourite job. He was headhunted from there by Michael Edwardes to be part of a roving trouble shooting team of managers.
My dad blames Lord Stokes, the pre Edwardes senior managers, and Thatcher (for excessive meddling) for the collapse of BL. He says the unions took the piss, but the bad management was worse. The design and engineering ideas were often great, but the execution was often poor, and short term pursuit of profits led to neglect of investment. Group meetings between different divisions were fractious, as the different brands treated each other as rivals. Jaguar spent the whole time plotting ways to escape.
By the 80s, my dad was running a factory making exhausts. He was made redundant and immediately given his job back as a self employed consultant. He finally left the car trade and went to run a pub. When Rover finally failed (Rover had the biggest selling car in the UK on the day it went bust), my dad was not surprised, as the blokes who had bought it were well known whamster scamsters.
Now he is retired in Birmingham and is not well, but he is still full of stories. He loves cars. He can no longer work on them. He has a 2009 Fiesta with an autobox that is surprisingly good, except uphill.
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff