Reinterpreting the 1989 Pilots' Dispute: The Role of Managerial Control and Labour Productivity

Abstract

Most accounts of the 1989 pilots dispute have focused on describing the progress of the dispute, analysing its relationship with the politics of the Accord or exposing the consequences of the parties ‘industrial and legal tactics. Surprisingly there has been little attempt to examine the origins and the effects of the dispute in the specific context of the domestic airline industry. This article argues that despite the role of the pilots' wage demands in triggering the dispute and the importance of the politics of the Accord in determining the course and outcome of the dispute, an important element throughout was the struggle over control of the labour process between airline employers, on the one hand, and pilots and their union, on the other. Issues of managerial control and pilot productivity were the underlying issues of the dispute and explain its immediate effects on pilots’ employment conditions in the aftermath of the dispute.