This study of skilled workers in industry analyzes the linked and often apparently contradictory relationships between craftsmen and managers and craftsmen and non-skilled workers. It considers the alternative views of the craftsman as a status-striving labour aristocrat within the workforce and as a focus for radical and militant challenge to management, and shows how craft skill and craft control are an important dynamic force for technological and organizational development in industry, as well as an influence on working class development in a broader sense. The argument is illustrated by two case studies - of the automobile industry in the USA, focusing on the role of the craftsman and of the UK motor industry (the Rover plant at Cowley).