Developments in the process and outcomes of collective bargaining

Abstract

In 1978 annual crude steel production in the UK stood at just under 21 million tonnes. Most of the 165 000 employees involved in producing that steel worked for the nationalised British Steel Corporation (BSC). In that year it took BSC 15.3 man hours to produce each tonne of liquid steel. A decade later, in 1988, the output of the UK steel industry was just over 19 million tonnes, 8 per cent lower than the 1978 level. Employment in the industry, however, had been cut by a massive 67 per cent to a little over 55 000. BSC’s productivity levels had correspondingly risen dramatically (to 5 man hours per tonne) and as a result BSC had gone from being a comparatively high-cost producer of bulk steel to one of the world’s lowest-cost producers. Since 1988, the year BSC was privatised and renamed British Steel plc (BS), rationalisation has continued as management have made further cuts and concentrated activity at the most efficient works. By 1992 the BS workforce had fallen to below 45 000, partly reflecting the closure of the Ravenscraig works early in that year.