Strikes
It is easy to overlook the impact of social unrest in the UK during E-Type production. Strikes were regular occurrences both at Jaguar and their suppliers which puts into perspective the "we used what we had to hand" comments from former employees. I thought it would be appropriate to document these disruptions from News reports during the first couple of years of S1 production.
Jaguar had one hundred main suppliers. Tyres from Dunlop, electrical equipment from Joseph Lucas. Glass from Triplex Holdings (a public limb of the Pilkington private empire). Instruments from S. Smith & Sons, Carburettors from S.U., a B.M.C subsidiary. Prop shafts from Hardy Spicer, which are part of Birfield. Door handles and bumpers from Wilmot Breeden. Radiators from Marston Excelsior of Leeds, an I.C.I subsidiary. Automotive Products, of Leamington, who made Borg and Beck clutches and Lockheed brakes. Birfield's Hardy-Spicer, Associated Engineering and innumerable subsidiaries of G.K.N. Jaguar depended on firms like these and above all it depended on their labour relations.
Jaguar was precariously exposed if anything went wrong at any of its myriad suppliers.
April 1961
The Jaguar car works at Coventry were at a standstill all day today because of a strike of 120 press shop men over new methods of payment for jobs. During the day the firm announced that they were prepared to pay the same money that the men had received previously and the men voted for an immediate return.
The strike led to 4,500 day shift workers being sent home. Tonight production was getting back to normal. When the strike began a union spokesman said that rate fixers had refused to authorize payment on previous terms. "The firm want to alter the method of payment in the press shop. Discussions on this between stewards and the works manager took place last week and a promise was made."
29 May 1961
Demand for the new E-type Jaguar has been so great that the company has had to step up production by 50 per cent; extra night shifts are being worked at Coventry in an attempt to meet this demand. A target of 150 E-type Jaguars a week has been set and it is hoped to reach this target towards the end of the autumn. Jaguar's current car production, excluding the E-type, is running at about 525 a week. About 65 per cent of total production goes for export of which about 33 per cent goes to the North American markets.
22 June 1961
More car workers were without work yesterday because of the Cricklewood strike of car instrument workers at Smiths, which seems likely to continue at least until Monday afternoon when the strikers meet again. Yesterday the strikers decided to continue the stoppage. Jaguars, who laid off 650 men yesterday, said that to "keep faith" with home customers expecting delivery of cars for the holidays they were making arrangements for models to be fitted with kilometre speedometers normally used only a vehicles for export. These will have overlays bearing m.p.h. conversions and will be replaced by the company when the strike is over.
30 June 1961
The 2,000 workers at Smith's Motor Accessories at Cricklewood, N.W.. were back at work yesterday after their two-week unofficial strike over a pay claim. Arrangements were made for the return to work of car workers made idle by the strike. Jaguar employees at Coventry will return today.
31 August 1961
Car workers in the Midlands are now beginning to be laid off as a result of the month-old strike of 21 toolsetters at the Birmingham factory of S.U. Carburettors. Ltd. On Friday 600 workers at the Jaguar Plant at Coventry will lose a day's work because of the dispute. About 1,000 men will not report for work at the Jaguar works in Coventry tomorrow and 950 will be laid off on Monday.
13 September 1961
Production in the car industry was not back to normal at Birmingham yesterday, although the dispute which upset supplies of SU carburettors ended last week. Jaguar Cars, Coventry, were working normally yesterday, but 950 employees will be laid off there today. The strike of toolsetters at the S.U. Carburettors works over an inter-union dispute ended on Thursday, when the men returned to work while talks took place.
23 October 1961
Trade union assurances of co-operation for Jaguar Cars Ltd., of Coventry, in fulfilling the requirements of the £22,500,000 order placed by their North American distributors, have been given this weekend. Jaguars have exactly 12 months to build and deliver over 10,000 cars. and in doing so they must strictly comply with the delivery dates specified. Labour disputes could damage the company's position.
This weekend, Mr D. Fairbairn. district secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, said of the Jaguar order: "All the Jaguar work-people will realize the importance of getting orders such as the company has obtained and there is no doubt that every cooperation will be forthcoming to see that as many cars as possible can be produced in the shortest possible time, and with the same high quality of workmanship. Every effort will be made so that even more orders can be obtained by the company."
Jaguar production facilities have been undergoing major changes during the past few weeks which will make it possible for them to meet this order which consists of 40 per cent of the new Jaguar Mark 10 model, 40 per cent E type and 20 per cent 3.8 litre Mark 2 saloons. Trouble from the Jaguar work-people themselves appears unlikely, but what Jaguars have to fear most is strike trouble at plants of their suppliers.
4 November 1961
Thirteen days after landing a dollar- earning order worth £22,500,000 Jaguar Cars at Coventry were affected by a lightning strike today. The Coventry factory of Jaguar Cars resumed normal production today with the return of 150 strikers from the trim shop who had walked out yesterday, causing 500 other workers to be laid off. They went back after talks with their union officials. They had said that their piecework earnings had gone down through excessive waiting for work after a production change-over concerning two models.
8 January 1962
Jaguar Cars, of Coventry, laid off 800 employees yesterday because of absenteeism in the supply department. A number of workers were away with influenza and other illnesses. Those laid off were asked to report today as usual in the hope that the position will have improved. The assembly of the Jaguar E and Mark 2 cars stopped.
8 February 1962
A lightening strike by 4,800 men stopped the Jaguar car plant at Coventry yesterday — and put a £22,500,000 export order in danger. American dealers who placed the order for 10,000 cars last October insisted that if delivery dates were not met they would cancel it. A company spokesman said yesterday that delivery dates "had reached a critical stage." The strike began when 4,500 men walked out because two men worked during the one-day national engineering stoppage on Monday. Last night, the 300 nightshift men did not report for work. After a meeting yesterday, shop stewards and union officials said: “The shop stewards feel these two men should be sacked.”
9 February 1962
Refusal by managements either to sack or suspend men who worked during Monday 's national engineering strike resulted in more factories closing yesterday. At Jaguar 's Coventry factory 4,500 production workers held a mass meeting and accepted a shop steward's advice to stay out until the firm dismisses two union men who worked on Monday.
The next meeting of the strikers has been announced for Tuesday, which means that even if the men decided to return to work then it would be impossible to resume full production until the following day. Jaguar's would thus have lost six days' production : the equivalent of about 650 to 700 cars. An American export order worth £22.5 millions, carries cancellation clauses if delivery is not made within a year of its placing at the Motor Show. A spokesman for the company said: "We are not in a position to dismiss these two men. What have they done against the company? This is a domestic matter for the union concerned and a settlement of this issue lies entirely in their hands. Today's decision at the mass meeting constituted the first request for the dismissal of the men that has been made to the management."
14 February 1962
Flattered by the congratulations of four local trade union officials, Jaguar car workers today voted to end the dispute in which 4,500 of them have been on strike. The majority in favour of returning to work tomorrow morning was enormous. Yesterday afternoon a negotiating committee of shop stewards agreed with the management that the two men who worked at Jaguars during the engineering strike on February 5 should not go to work for a fortnight while the union dealt with the matter. Yesterday evening the Jaguar branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union agreed that the men should each be fined £5. It is said to be entirely a happy coincidence that the two men themselves offered to be suspended from work for two weeks without pay.
15 February 1962
Jaguars tonight laid off 800 of the 4,500 returning strikers because of "considerable dislocation caused by the stoppage, particularly in the supply departments". The 800 were stood off until next Monday. Another 300 might have to be laid off during Friday, the firm said. The Jaguar strike, which lasted a week, was over the firm's refusal to dismiss two men who worked during the national one- day engineering stoppage on February 5.
17 February 1962
Some 1,100 of the 4,500 Jaguar workers in Coventry who returned to work on Wednesday alter a week long strike, were idle again yesterday. They have been laid off until Monday because of production dislocation caused by the strike.
28 February 1962
Jaguar car production is almost back to the normal 530 cars a week. The recent seven-day strike-at the height of work on a £22,500,000 United States export order-cost the company nearly £1m. They will be unable to recoup the loss of 600 Mark Ten, Mark II and E type Jaguars.
3 March 1962
Arrangements are complete for the second one-day token stoppage in engineering and shipbuilding on Monday. Mr H. G. Barratt, general secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, said yesterday that he expected it to be as successful as the first one, which was held on February 5 in protest against the rejection of pay and hours claims. The employers reported an 80 per cent strike in engineering and an almost total stoppage in shipbuilding Several engineering firms have already announced that they will close. At the Jaguar factory yesterday notices were posted requesting manual workers not to report for work. The company are anxious to avoid a repetition of their experience last time, when, because two men worked, a week-long strike developed.
10 May 1962
Production stopped at the Coventry factory of Jaguar Cars yesterday when 700 day workers walked out on strike protesting over the progress on a wage claim associated with the firm's production bonus scheme. Some 2,500 other production workers had to be sent home. The strikers inspectors, store-keepers, and material handlers-are expected to return today.
18 May 1962
About 850 assembly workers at the Coventry factory of Jaguar Cars Ltd. were sent home yesterday after a walk-out by 400 trim shop employees over a piecework pav dispute. Those sent home were told not to report back until Tuesday because of the shortage of supplies. The strikers, members of the National Union of Vehicle Builders, said they would report to the factory today, but would not work until their claim was satisfactorily settled. a spokesman for Jaguar Cars Ltd., of Coventry, said at the weekend that because of four unofficial stoppages this year the company had no margin of time to spare to meet delivery deadlines.
"Should the current unofficial stoppage continue, it cannot do otherwise than result in a considerable loss of business, both at home and overseas. A successful export business depends mainly on competitive pricing and prompt delivery. These unofficial strikes are denuding Jaguar of both these vital assets." The spokesman added that not a single advantage had been gained from any of the stoppages.
8 June 1962
Car assembly was stopped at Jaguar Cars, Coventry, yesterday for the fifth time this year. The firm had to send home 750 production workers following a series of spasmodic stoppages during the week by the 400 trim shop men who recently caused seven days loss of production when they struck over a pay claim.
A spokesman for the firm, at Coventry, said last night: "We were forced to send them home because of a spate of unofficial strikes by 400 trim shop workers over piecework rates." The strikes, which have lasted for between one and two hours, are in defiance of union officials."
1 August 1962
For the sixth time this year production has been disrupted by an unofficial stoppage at Jaguar Cars Ltd., Coventry. At luncheon time today 1,300 men were sent home after 50 internal transport drivers walked out because of a revised bonus scheme. Those laid off, a day after their annual fortnight's holiday, were told to report back tomorrow morning, when the working position will be reviewed. Management said that the strikers acted against the advice and instructions of their shop stewards and before their grievance could be discussed through the usual channels of negotiation.
14 August 1962
Production of the dollar-earning E- type Jaguar cars was halted at the Coventry factory today when 62 men walked out. The strikers, who are employed on the pre-mount and body assembly work, object to the company's plan to increase the number of workers on these jobs and say that too many extra men there will have an adverse effect on their earnings.
Because of the stoppage about 140 other workers engaged on the E-type assembly were laid off. They were told to report back tomorrow in the hope that the strikers would have returned. An official of the firm said that the strikers, members of the National Union of Vehicle Builders, were told before the walkout that if the operation of the new system meant that they would lose money the matter would be re-examined. The walk- out was against the advice of the shop stewards. The extra labour was required in the assembly section to step up production to meet increased demand for the model.
27 September 1962
Thirteen hundred production workers at Jaguar Cars Ltd., Coventry, were sent home yesterday after an unofficial one-day token strike by 20 men in the automatic chrome plating plant. The strikers have demanded a change in their methods and rate of pay. The company said they had made several offers during constitutional procedural discussions each of which was rejected. A meeting on Tuesday had been adjourned.
2 October 1962
Six thousand men went on strike at the factory of Jaguar Cars Ltd here today and production was stopped completely. Trouble began after the firm's decision to dismiss a man (Ronald Rowe) employed in the oil cleaning shop after an alleged assault on a foreman (Bill Whetstone). The joint shop stewards committee recommended the strike because no action was taken against the foreman. While the stewards were meeting, trouble broke out on the Mark X assembly line, where men objected to the transfer of 20 workers from the Mark 2 line to increase track speeds. A company official said the firm was insistent that quality production could be maintained only if these men were transferred to the line. A mass meeting of the workers has been called for tomorrow.
3 October 1962
A mass meeting today of the 6,000 employees of Jaguar Cars, Ltd., Coventry, whose strike action yesterday brought car assembly to a standstill, voted for a return to work beginning with the night shift tonight. A company official said later: "A partial return to work will take place tomorrow, but no car production will be possible, owing to a shortage of chrome- plated parts, following the unofficial strike in the plating department on Wednesday and the employment of go-slow tactics on Thursday and Friday of last week."
8 October 1962
The three-day-old strike by 300 Coventry car delivery drivers which threatened production at the city's three main factories-Rootes, Jaguar, and Standard- Triumph International-is over. At a special meeting today the car delivery men and women agreed to return to work tomorrow. Members of the Transport and General Workers' Union, they had been protesting over the collection of cars in Coventry for delivery to all parts of the country by firms which had no agreement on pay and conditions with their union.
23 October 1962
Normal production was resumed at Burman and Sons, a car components factory at King's Norton , Birmingham, yesterday, with the return of 800 workers, who voted on Friday to end their four-day strike. At Jaguar's, of Coventry, 1,500 men laid off on Friday as a result of the Burman strike were also back at work yesterday.
12 January 1963
The three-week-old American dock strike has made workers at Jaguar Cars, Coventry, idle, and more car firms may have to take similar action because of the build-up in shipments. The men affected are nearly all the 230 assembly track workers on the Jaguar E type car, one of Britain's biggest dollar earners. They have been told to report back on Tuesday. It was announced yesterday that the car's price in the United States would be cut by about £143 for the fixed- head coupe and about £107 for the open seater because of increasing American competition and the company's determination to remain in the forefront-of' British car firms. The strike has meant that no car shipments are being unloaded along the United States eastern seaboard. This has caused a heavy build-up at the Coventry factory of cars intended for the United States.
7 February 1963
Production was halted when about 850 workers, most of the labour force, remained idle at the S.U. carburettor factory, which supplies carburettors and fuel pumps for Jaguar and most B.M.C. models. The men are striking in protest against the suspension of a tool- room worker. He is due to resume work tomorrow, and the strike is expected to end.
3 May 1963
Two dozen women yesterday decided it was too cold for work in the Jaguar car factory.
And as a result 650 men workers had to be sent home and £170,000 worth of production was lost. "It was," said a Jaguar official, "a highly expensive bit of nonsense." He added, at the factory in Coventry: "The heating was switched off last week when temperatures generally generally were above the 60 degree minimum laid down by the Factory Acts. This morning the factory temperature was 65 degrees. A dozen trim shop women making car seats work. Later they were joined by another dozen." The official went on: "We offered to switch on the heating, but explained it would take several hours before there would be any noticeable effect. The women still refused to start work. Finally we had to stop four production tracks affected by the trim shop. But we believe everything will be all right tomorrow. We'll be ready to switch on the heating immediately."
28 May 1963
Two Coventry factories, Jaguar Cars, Ltd. and Standard-Triumph International, Ltd., both big dollar earners with bulging order books, were at a standstill today with over 10,000 workers on strike or thrown idle because of pay disputes. At Jaguar Cars, 750 key workers who handle material and inspect components went on strike today complaining of lack of progress in introducing an individual incentive bonus scheme. The rest of the firm's 3,500 labour force had to be laid off, and they have been asked to report back on Wednesday morning to await the outcome of a meeting by the strikers the same morning. A spokesman for Jaguar Cars said: "The walk-out was against the advice of their shop stewards. The bonus scheme was put forward by the company and agreed with unions and employees. It means greater remuneration for greater efforts by the day workers, and it was accepted that it would take time to introduce."
28 June 1963
Mr Harry Adey, industrial relations manager at Jaguar Cars Ltd., Coventry, who was recently a shop steward, was today involved in a dispute concerning his former workmates which resulted in 1,000 men being laid off. Sixty sheet metal workers who were colleagues of Mr Adey until his appointment two weeks ago complained that the company was guilty of "unconstitutional behaviour ". The complaint arose when Mr Adey was investigating a sheet metal union request that more of its members might be employed at the factory. The men began work later than usual today after a meeting and because of this there was a shortage of components which resulted in the lay-off in assembly sections of all models. During the day there were discussions between union officials and management representatives, who included Mr Adey. The workers who were laid off were told to report back to work tomorrow morning.
2 July 1963
Production was resumed tonight at Jaguar Cars Ltd., Coventry, after a decision earlier in the day to return to work by 200 striking sheet metal workers. Some of the men returned tonight but the bulk will resume tomorrow. Local union officials will now ask their national officer to take the members grievances to the employers federation. Their protest was over a management survey of labour strength about which they said they should have been consulted first.
26 August 1963
About 3,000 Jaguar workers in Coventry may be sent home when they report for work tomorrow morning. The Browns Lane assembly plant has been idle since Thursday because of a strike by 20 bodyshop men who claim that the company fixed a pay rate for waiting time between jobs without consultation. Some 2,000 assembly workers supported the body-shop men and others had to be laid off. The company denied the allegation and repeated this weekend the warning that they would not negotiate until there was a return to work. The strikers say they want talks to start before they return. Private talks were taking place over the weekend between shop stewards and trade union officials and the strikers will meet early tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile. Jaguar Cars have reported that final sales figures for the financial year ended July 31 showed that it was a record year for Jaguar exports. The biggest advance in sales was to Europe where an increase of 45 per cent was achieved over the previous record year of 1960-61. There was an increase of 106 per cent in exports to the Common Market and one of 32 per cent in exports to the Efta countries.
6 September 1963
Half the Midlands car industry is threatened by the four-day-old strike of 450 Coventry car delivery drivers. Jaguars announced tonight there would be no work for 2,350 employees tomorrow and on Monday. The dispute concerns the increased employment of part-time delivery drivers and particularly drivers employed by a new firm which is outside the car delivery employers' association. The strikers claim that full-time car delivery men have been made redundant because of the employment of part-timers.