POOR management and militant shop stewards shared the blame for the years of industrial strife in the Cowley car industry.

That is the view of David Buckle, former Oxford district secretary of the Transport & General Workers’ Union.

In a new book, called Turbulent Times in the Car Industry, he sets out his view of the reasons for the numerous strikes and disputes which bedevilled the factories from the 1950s to the 1980s.

He writes: “The management and most of the media blamed the working people for the bad industrial relations.

“But a more modern and caring management could and should have prevented many of the bad conditions of work.

“The turbulence in the industry was due to the management’s failure to invest sufficiently in plant and equipment, which allowed politically motivated people both in management and on the shop floor to have so much influence and power over hard-working employees.

“The management, who denied employees their rights, and shop stewards, who used their members for political purposes to suit their own ends, have a considerable share of the blame for what happened in the second half of the 20th century to the Cowley car industry.

“Decent, hard-working people did not deserve either bad management or politically-motivated extremists as shop stewards.”

Mr Buckle, who lives at Radley, is well placed to comment on the industry – he was a production line worker and shop steward at the Pressed Steel car body factory before becoming a full-time union official.

Much of his time as TGWU district secretary was taken up trying to sort out disputes at Cowley.

He has harsh words for managers, particularly Sir Michael Edwardes, whose style of management created a “climate of fear”.

But he is also heavily critical of militant shop stewards, who had no regard for workers’ needs, only their own political aims.

He writes: “Attending meetings of shop stewards was often a nightmare. The militant stewards always made sure they were at the front and they constantly heckled me with the aim of breaking up the meeting. On one occasion, chairs were thrown at the platform to drive me off.”

  • The purchase of the Oxford office of the Transport and General Workers’ Union must have been one of the country’s quickest property deals on record.

Ernie Bevin, the union’s general secretary, was determined not to have the office too close to the Cowley car factories, to show that the union represented not only car workers but those in other industries in the county.

He and union district secretary Jack Thomas walked the length of Cowley Road to The Plain. On the way back, they walked into a bookshop at No 46.

Bevin asked the owner if he would like to sell. He said ‘yes’, Bevin offered him £340 and the deal was sealed.

  • Turbulent Times in the Car Industry costs £4.99 plus £1 postage. For a copy, call Mr Buckle on 01235 529949 or write to 1 Stonhouse Crescent, Radley, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 3AG.