Six - The Bartlett Years: Industrial Relations Policies 1929–1950

Summary

We have seen how in the 1920s under pressure of its heavy financial losses Vauxhall management dealt harshly with the unions and eventually created an uncompromising regime in its dealings with the workforce.

By contrast the Bartlett period of managerial control under General Motors does appear to have been one of stability and enlightenment. However, the period 1929-1953 was very much one of expansion and huge profitability and few of the problems which beset Hancock, Walton and Kidner occurred under Bartlett's ‘golden reign.’ How then did Bartlett achieve this peaceful state; peaceful enough for Vauxhall to be dubbed ‘the turnip patch.’ Is this view totally true? Outwardly it would appear so. There were no major strikes in the period and such disputes that did exist, mainly in the Second World War, were described by Sir Reginald Pearson as stoppages and lasted for a few hours at the most.

Bartlett achieved these ends in a number of ways. Firstly, he aimed at creating a more stable workforce which was not prone to the uncertainties of lay-offs in short times. Harold Horne, a militant communist AEU shop steward (and later Convenor), states:

He [Bartlett] began to introduce schemes, where in bad times, where other companies like Ford, would lay off workers - Bartlett would try to keep them on by doing jobs like cleaning up, painting machinery, repairing windows, things like this. Bartlett acquired the reputation of being a good humanistic progressive employer for these reasons.

Secondly, in the 1930s Vauxhall began to pay good wages compared with other industries in the town and compared with other car companies in Britain. Glyn Davies, a public relations officer, who began work at Vauxhall in 1935 in the body shop recalls that ‘Vauxhall were paying good wages. Up to £3 a week. This meant a long waiting list to get a job. Kent Instruments (another Luton firm) paid £1.18s a week, which was poor by comparison.’ Harold Horne concedes that Vauxhall had ‘a reputation for paying comparatively high wages, in excess of the general standard of wages in the motor industry.’

The high local wage rates of Vauxhall are given documentary backing by the Bedfordshire Engineering Employers’ Association, which recorded in its minutes continual complaints from its members concerning the ‘excessive Vauxhall wage rates.’ As early as 1934 Skefko and Kent were very concerned about ‘the high rates being paid by Messrs.