ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the firms and their workers have adapted to one another and assess the significance of the resulting management-labour relations, both for company performance and for labour generally. It deals with an outline of the characteristics of the workforce in electrical engineering in South Wales, comparing it with that of the traditional industries. The chapter outlines the reconstitution of management-labour relations in the industry and the response of trade unions in this most labourist of British regions, concluding with a brief analysis of the spatial recomposition of the industry in South Wales. The management—labour practices associated with new entrants are simply reduced to single-unionism or no-strike deals when, for management, these are merely the most obtrusive insignia of a whole series of social innovations. New entrants–particularly from overseas–possess a distinct advantage over established firms in realizing the innovations because labour lacks the bargaining power of existing involvement and precedent.
