ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the work traditions of one steelplant and some of the pressures confronting its members for change. It presents relevant details of the social and technical organisation of steelmaking at Ironhill. Seniority lines have operated as important stabilising elements in the system of work control: it is an effective means of stratification, diversifying the labour force and providing a ladder of promotion sufficiently rewarding to have prevented the formation of a homogeneous group of steelworkers. Steel plates and billets are the main saleable products manufactured at Ironhill. The down-swings of 1958 and 1961 indicated general recessions marked by abrupt changes in government economic policy with subsequent effects upon the level of industrial investment and more particularly upon the performance of the vehicle manufacturing and shipbuilding industries. At Ironhill the scale of management and administration remained relatively small, consistent with industries possessing 'craft' technologies and primarily concerned with unit production.
