On September 14, the Worker Cooperative National Conference 2018 gets under way in Los Angeles. From a historical perspective, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the prime mover behind this initiative, couldn’t have chosen a better date: It marks the birth pangs of a singular workers’ cooperative, on the other side of the Atlantic.
On September 14, 1973, workers at the Meriden factory of Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) began a historic 18-month sit-in to head off efforts to close down the facility. The protracted struggle would culminate in the formation of a workers’ cooperative on March 6, 1975 — Meriden Motorcycle Co-operative — that would buy and run the factory with a loan provided by the British government.
What is arguably the best account of what happened at Meriden factory comes from an insider, John Rosamond.
In 1970, John joined the Meriden factory, where Triumph motorcycles were being manufactured under the BSA group. He was at the coalface of fateful developments in the British motorcycling industry, which was in the doldrums, having lost much ground to Japanese motorcycle makers with their trendier machines. Downscaling of motorcycle-manufacturing operations in Britain had become inevitable.
In his book, Save the Triumph Bonneville!: The Inside Story of the Meriden Workers’ Co-op , John speaks of the pride the workforce at the Meriden factory took in making Triumph motorcycles, especially the Bonneville and Tiger models. Here is a sequence of events that led to the formation of the Meriden Motorcycle Co-operative.
With the BSA group going belly-up in 1973, the British government made a successful move to merge BSA/Triumph with Norton-Villiers, leading to the formation of NVT.
In 1973, NVT threw a curve ball towards the workers at the Meriden factory. Contrary to widespread expectation that the factory in Small Heath, Birmingham would be closed, NVT announced to a shell-shocked 1,700-member workforce in Meriden that it was their factory that was marked for closure.
At Meriden, a unique work culture had cemented bonds between employees, and in a crisis, it helped them band together as a powerful fighting unit.
John writes: “Over the years, the factory had proved that the Triumph way was the best, so that’s what happened there. A significant part of ‘the Triumph way’ was a keen sense of humour and fair play; during the coming months, this was to play a major part in the Meriden workforce’s ability to fight for its motorcycles.”
Another decisive factor that tipped the balance in the favour of the Meridens: They never doubted their ability to pull it off. Rosamond points out that during the 18-month picket, they were holding talks not just with the Government, but also dealer networks in America. They seemed to believe in their bones that the crisis would blow over, and when it did, they would make Triumph Bonneville and Tiger models for the American market, and so were focussed on making friends on the other side of the Atlantic. They were also technologically prepared for the future.
“The left foot gear change and right foot brake design changes to meet the new US legislation had been completed by the pickets during the eighteen-month factory occupation; Chuck Knight (the Co-op’s chief road tester) undertook exhaustive testing in the factory car park, with road-going insurance unavailable until the legal formation of the Co-op,” writes John.
Thanks to such resilience, from 1975 to 1983, the workers cooperative had the honour of carrying the Triumph mantle, and introducing special editions, which include the Triumph Royal Wedding T140LE Bonneville in 1981 (celebrating the Charles-Diana wedding) and the T140J Bonneville (introduced in 1977 to commemorate the silver jubilee of the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II).
Strange are the ways of fate. NVT would actually end up effecting major shutdowns at its two other factories, in Small Heath and Wolverhampton, by 1975. In contrast, the year would mark a new beginning for Meriden and its 1,700-member workers cooperative.
In an article titled ‘Down but not out’ in On Two Wheels: The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Motorcycling (Volume 11) — published by Marshall Cavendish — Geoff Adams writes: “So where were NVT now? In the absence of full Government support of a three-factory set-up, NVT closed the Norton factory at Marston Road, Wolverhampton, and wound up the NVT Manufacturing company at Small Heath in 1975. Now there was NVT Engineering Ltd to maintain stocks of spare parts for the machines, and NVT motorcycles to be responsible for the marketing of the products and to look into future markets.”
