At the cutting edge of new realism: the engineers’ 35 hour week campaign

British engineering unions’ campaign for a 35 hour week in 1989–90 was a watershed dispute in terms of strike strategy and its impact on collective bargaining institutions. This article examines the dynamics of the dispute and the tensions between the national and local leaderships of the union campaign and compares it to similar ones waged by the German metalworkers’ union, IG Metall.