Never So Good
Page 41
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By Alan Smith
v(SIT any bodybuilder in a big town and, above the noise of the hammering, he will complain about the shortage of labour, One London company. has 250 men, but could find employment for 350 more, What are the reasons?
Full employment," explained the managing director. He might have said "Fire, famine and flood," in the same tone of voice. Questioned more closely, he blamed the aircraft industry as the chief drawer among those whichoffered men cleaner, if more repetitive, work at better pay. _ Only slightly better, perhaps. His men were taking away £15-£20 a week and even the floor sweepers earned f8-£9, he said. But who could blame them if they went somewhere else and earned as much with less effort? Factories run on mass-production lines attracted labour away ' from smaller plants, where work involved more walking about, more fetchng and carrying, and where one picked up more dirt on pile's hands and clothes
Artisan Extinct
Most serious was • the apparent extinction of the highest class of artisan. Orders for passenger bodies, which involved a greater application of craftsmanship in their production than the general run of goods bodies, were having to he turned away completely. Even so, the order book was filled for at .least siX" months with demands for goods bodies alone, even though customers had to be told to wait.
A more stoical view was expressed to me by another bodybuilder. "One just has to accept the position," he said, "but we have found it easier to Obtain apprentices in the past year or so."
The results of the war-time leap in the birth-rate were now .being realized and more youths were coming into industry. Their quality was higher than that of boys accepted in the earlier post-war years as the younger lads' schooling had not been disrupted. Nevertheless, their education left much to be desired. Vocational training at polytechnics, however, was well in its stride and the teaching at these institutes was good.
Fewer Arms Looking to the future, this executive vats confident that present labour difficulties would be overcome, particularly if the arms programme decelerated. This programme, had a twofold effect. Munitions factories attracted labour, and the majority of bodybuilders had Government contracts to fulfil. ,
It. is revealing to see the work that bodybuilders are doing in this connection, both in extent and quality. Thus, the bodybuilder with an inadequate labour force has to devote part of his lesources to non-commercial production, and civilian customers' frustration is increased.
To re-establish a works elsewhere is not a proposition that any bodybuilder
will lightly consider, but many have lately thought of it as a solution of current problems. Mostly they have i-ejected the idea, because in the first place an area from which adequate skilled labour can be drawn has to be selected. When such a place is found, inevitably other industrialists have the same intention and the problem is nowhere nearer solution than if the bodybuilder had stayed put. •
Perhaps the most fortunately placed companies are those in semi-rural districts with no other industries to lure iheir labour away. But they are few and far between, and their heads have
Although Their Order Books Are Well Filled, Many Bodybuilders Have Difficulty in 41 Maintaining •Production
the constant fear that Consolidated Food Products, Ltd., or the giant Sparks Electric combine may establish a plant nearby, complete with sports ground, subsidized canteen and 10-acre car park.
High hopes were once pinned to the New Towns, at least by the planners. "Draw industry away from the sprawling conurbations," they cried," so that people can live near their places of work."
Drift Back
But what is happening now is that labour initially attracted to the New Towns is beginning to drift back to the crowded cities, with their greater amenities for recreation, better shopping facilities ,ind generally livelier tempo, daily travel in jam-packed transport notwithstanding.
The question of relocation of industry links with the common grumble of bodybuilders and others heard not so long ago. "We can't get the space!" they would invariably say, as one picked one's way across their outdoor areas between bare chassis parked closely together, tripping over snicks of ,steel and dodging fellows putting the final touches to finished vehicles waiting to go out.
Bodybuilders who started business perhaps 20 years ago in semi-rural or open suburban localities, now find themselves cramped all round. For them there is no room for an extension to the assembly shop, nowhere for a new spraying booth, and where on earth could the machine shop, with its range of modern woodand metal-working equipment (paid for out of well-earned profits not dissipated in tax) be laid out inote spaciously?
The complaint about lack of space is not heard so much these days. Maybe the answer is that when only a small. number of men can be retained, existing works area is sufficient. Nevertheless, the, matter is Probably still well in the minds of bodybuilders who seek to expand their production facilities to meet demands.
And production must be expanded. The chassis makers are to spend millions of pounds on increasing the size of their plants, and chassis output in another two or three years will be much above the present rate. Who is going to build the bodies, and how?••
Little Similarity
Greater .mechanization," one may .
suggest. But how far can this be applied? Mechanization of production implies standardization of components. Goods bodies, however, vary according to the types of load for which they are intended, and even among operators in one line of activity there is little similarity in specification.
And, of course, if a customer is not prepared to accept a • standardized design, he is always free to build his own bodywork to his individual ideas.
Another current worry, which receives almost as much emphasis as the scarcity of labour, is the shortage of small section steel. Steelmasters, under the present system of price control, find it more profitable to make plate than sheet, girder rather than strip.
Receiving small-section steel in inadequate quantities, bodybuilders have, during the past six to nine months, been increasingly importing their additional requirements from the Continent. The cost is high and prices of finished bodies have to be revised.
Some advocate the removal of price control, but whilst this may raise the availability of small-section steel, there is no guarantee that prices will hold, and, looking at the question through a Whitehall window, that overall supplies of steel to all users would improve.
Union View.
Although their order books may be bulging, bodybuilders are not altogether happy. "What more do you want? You have never had it so good," the union officials tell them across the wagenegotiating table. The bodybuilder looks over his yard and sees more chassis coming in than complete vehicles going out. His telephone "rings.
"I want fully insulated cabs on my new vehicles," says a customer, "with heater and demister, sun vizor, adjustable seat, of course, and windscreen washers. One of these fine days I'll have to fit radio as well, the way things are going. Do you think I can get drivers? I can't; and when I do I've got to provide 'em with a cab like the lounge of the Dorchester. It's the only way I can hold on to them."
" You have -never had it so good," says the bodybuilder.