Papers of David Michael Beaton, industrial relations officer and manager

The archive contains material illustrating day to day activities and relationships, as well as the regional and national industrial relations climate at the start of a decade which was to see industrial strife and government response trigger major political and social change. The publications illustrating the national scene are, of course, available elsewhere. However, a selection has been included to illustrate the volume of regulatory and advisory material the participants had to take into account in the course of their day to day dealings on the 'front line' of industrial unrest.

The papers in this small archive were assembled by the present owner, David Michael Beaton, a retired Human Resources Director, whose career embraced experience in the engineering, plant construction, oil and international agribusiness industries. Between 1968-1973 Beaton was employed as an industrial relations officer and manager in the north west of England by Kellogg International Corporation (KIC), an American petrochemical engineering design and construction company. In this period he came face to face with the volatile and sometimes violent industrial relations scene in the Merseyside area, where KIC was awarded a succession of plant maintenance and construction contracts for Shell Chemicals at Carrington and Stanlow, and Burmah Castrol at Ellesmere Port.

Except for diaries closed under data protection legislation, this collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Link to full catalogue: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/DMB