ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the ways in which fractional bargaining had spread disaffection among supervision and indicates how, in turn, this had weakened management's control over pay and work; it then goes on to show how the capacity of the factory's labor organization to integrate sectional interests among the workforce had been eroded under the continuous pressure of fractional bargaining. The reasons for the disaffection must be looked for in circumstances peculiar to the English factory. The English factory's management was aware of these trends and had introduced a program of measures designed to turn the tide by 'reaffirming the role of supervision as the first line of management'. Loss of managerial authority did not lead to a corresponding increase in the authority of the shop stewards. Here, there had been a loss of authority at every level of labor representation in the English factory. Instead power resided with shifting coalitions of workers on the shop floor.
