Lucas Plan

Lucas Plan

In 1974 the management of Lucas Aerospace, an engineering firm that manufactured aircraft components for both military and civilian use, announced restructuring plans, which threatened to make many members of the workforce redundant. When shop stewards at the company lobbied the Secretary of State for Industry Tony Benn to request that the government nationalise the company, Benn instead suggested that they come up with their own strategy for the business’s future. This led the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee to produce an Alternative Corporate Plan, drawing upon hundreds of proposals for new products developed by their workmates. Alert to the threat of deskilling and conceived in terms of ‘socially useful’ technology, these ideas included plans to produce medical equipment, public transport vehicles and innovations to improve energy efficiency. While this initiative failed to influence Lucas management, it led directly to the formation of the Centre for Alternative Industrial Systems (CAITS) at North East London Polytechnic and Coventry Polytechnic’s Unit for the Development of Alternative Products (UDAP). MayDay Rooms holds a collection of material on the Lucas Plan.