REPORT OF WORKS MEETING HELD 11:30 AM ON THURSDAY 17TH OF FEBRUARY AND SUBSEQUENT UNION MANAGEMENT DISCUSSIONS
Dated : 18th February 1972
Some Electricity Boards have been complaining that firms are still using as much power as before because they are now working longer hours on the days that power is available. This does not apply to A. C. W. Limited. As you know our normal working week was 168 hours and has now been reduced to 72 hours. This represents a 57% reduction.
When we were advised last Friday afternoon of the state of emergency which existed, we immediately looked for ways of reducing hardship on our employees and making arrangements to ensure minimum damage to our Company.
We looked at the factory in two groups, the first being Finishing, i.e Female Staff and the second group Production – Male Staff.
The proposals which were made to your Union Representatives on both hours and pay were accepted. Objection however, was raised to our proposal that we lay off 15 men in rotation. Your union representative suggested that instead we pay off 15 men and we agreed to this since we recognised that this avoided all of the men losing three days before receiving unemployment benefit.
Following this agreement at Plant Level, we then had a request for a meeting from Mr Thom – this meeting took place on Wednesday 16th February at 2:30 p.m. At the meeting your Union Representatives said that they had reconsidered the position and did not now wish to operate a two shift 12 hour arrangement. They also asked that we withdraw the pay-off which they had suggested and that this be done by some term of work sharing. Management agreed to again urgently review The rapidly changing and rapidly deteriorating situation and advise your Union Representatives of their decision as quickly as possible.
The Wednesday meeting really only affected Shift Engineers and Moulders but we felt that the situation was deteriorating so rapidly that every member of the Company was affected and that we should therefore call a meeting of the entire staff to ensure that everyone had information first hand.
Over the last few days, we have lost a substantial amount of business. We have been advised by the Nobel Division of I.C.I. that as a direct result of the present situation, they will now only require approximately ⅓ of the mouldings which they have on order with us.
We have been advised by British Vacuum Flask that they are closing down completely and that when the relatively small balances of existing orders have been delivered, they will have no further requirements. This news comes on top of the loss of the Martini Contract since this Company have now decided to switch from a Plastic headed closure to a Metal Screwcap.
Should the present crisis last much longer, some of our other Customers may be forced out of business.
The power crisis only affects the United Kingdom. Some of our customers may therefore seek to protect their sales by buying mouldings abroad.
Management were therefore faced with : –
- A rapidly deteriorating power situation which could only result in the total shutdown of the factory.
- A permanent loss of the B. V. F. account and the danger of still more companies closing.
- A substantial cut back in usage by I. C. I. Nobel Division.
- The loss of the Martini Account.
- The danger that customers who operate on an International basis may seek to buy abroad resulting in the permanent loss of business.
Against this background the decision was taken to attempt to buy a large diesel generator so that we may run at least part of our Factory.
We have now received confirmation that such a generator can be installed in the near future – maybe within the next two weeks. This generator would be capable of supplying approximately 75% of our Factory Power requirements.
The following proposals were made to your union representatives at a meeting yesterday morning and were then made to the full factory meeting.
- That the Finishing Department continue to operate a normal working week of 40 hours. This is possible with the use of the small generator and portable compressor which we already have.
- That so long as power is available from the Hydro-Board on Tuesday’s Friday’s and Saturday’s we work 24 hours on each of those days using a three shift system of 8 hours and that we make use of hours on other days to do other work for example : –
Toolroom… May carry out hand work on moulds.
Shift Engs…. The maintenance of machines
Moulding Machine Operators… Moving of equipment to prepare for the generator, in the moving of stock and in the general cleaning of the factory.
(It was subsequently decided that it would be easier from both the employees and management point of view if we simply work a three shift system starting midnight on Monday night until midnight on Saturday night)
- Should power be cut off altogether, we would then review what useful work could be carried out by the Male Labour Force.
- When the generator is available, the factory will return to normal working hours of 168 hours per week.
- With the generator in operation or for that matter, normal power restored, the present known loss of business means that we must have a redundancy though we have been able to reduce this from 15 to 11 men. These men will all be moulding machine operators. All of the main declared redundant will be given the correct notice of termination of employment and the redundancy payments due to them.
Mr Drummond met with Messrs. Noble, Essen and McCarthy at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday 17th and agreed the list of 11 men who had to be made redundant. The selection was made on the basis of attendance records, performance level, reliability and Union Membership. The question of manning levels was also discussed and it was agreed that the existing manning levels would continue.
Messrs. Noble, Essen and McCarthy Matt the molding machine operators at 3 p.m. on Thursday the 17th and following this meeting, Messrs. Noble and Essen met with Management. Messrs. Noble and Essen confirmed that the Management’s proposals had been accepted by the factory subject to the clarification of certain points. These were :-
- That the Company would take steps to review the number of mouldings made by Sub-Contractors.
- In the event of the level of business increasing and further moulding operative labour being required, that Management agreed to consider for re-employment the men being declared redundant and that consideration would be given in the following order :-
- Cotton
- Wattie
- Sandison
- Smith
- Ross
- Thomson
- Shearer
- Boyd
- Gray
- P. Duncan
- K. Walker
- Management confirm that they had already decided to withdraw molds from subcontractors as soon as this could be done without breach of contract. management meet at clear that this represented a very small amount of work and that this had already been taken into account and their deliberations.
Management agreed to the Unions suggestion regarding re-employment in the event of upturn in the level of business.
Management agreed to operate a one man, one machine manning level for the period of the emergency and to prevent confusion, Management would consider that the emergency was over when the large generator was providing power or when normal supplies had been restored by the Electricity Board.
It is imperative that the question of manning level be clearly understood since, if we are to remain competitive and obtain further work to enable us to resume growth, we must be able to operate more than one machine per man.
Indeed, if we were to accept one man, one machine, then we would immediately lose the Ethicon Contract and as a direct result of this a further 8 moulding machine operators would require to be made redundant with the distinct possibility of further redundancies in Shift Engineering, Toolroom and Finishing.
Management and Union representatives then reached total agreement thus allowing production to commence at midnight on Thursday 17th February.
H. Smith,
Director
Source : Typed document by Mr Hugh Smith, Director on 18th February 1972
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