ABSTRACT
In January 1976, the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee published their proposals for the production of alternative products. The idea of preparing an overall Corporate Plan arose at a meeting in November 1974 with Tony Benn, then Minister of Industry, requested by the Combine Committee to discuss the possible nationalization of Lucas Aerospace. The Plan also quotes Roy Mason, then Defence Secretary, who pointed out in the House of Commons ‘that with few new projects coming along there would be a marked reduction in the level of activity in military aerospace projects, particularly on the design side.’ Lucas Aerospace and other component firms were not to be included in the nationalization programme and there would consequently be a changed relationship between Lucas and the nationalized firms. The Lucas Aerospace Plan therefore is both about alternatives to arms production and in many ways more fundamentally, a challenge to some deeply held assumptions about work, management and industrial democracy.
