CLOCK BACK 25 YEARS
1959The NewsletterEdward Knight Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
PAISLEY STRIKERS, MAINLY GIRLS AND WOMEN, FIGHT ATTEMPT TO PUT A COMPLETE stoppage involving nearly 6,000 workers will take place at the Furguslie and Anchor Thread Mills, Paisley, in support of the workers’ demand for the reinstatement of two dismissed men.
At the beginning of the week over 700 workers were already on strike at the Furguslie Mill, and on Monday the call went out to all union members in both mills to stop work.
Cause of the dispute is the management’s attempts to impose speed-up methods on the workers in the process of alleged reorganization.
Latest instance affected the vacuum strippers—men who clear away waste products from the spinning machines.
As a result of time and motion study the work to be done by the men was increased from eighty to ninety-four machines, to be serviced twice every shift. The ‘experts’ also found some additional work for the men to do.
‘Malingerers and lead-swingers’
When given the new allocation the workers protested that it was impossible to carry out the amount of work indicated. Trials by the workers showed this to be the case.
‘Malingerers and lead-swingers’ was the management’s retort. Attempts by officials of the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers to have the matter discussed and the new times investigated were rejected.
The management then threatened to dismiss or suspend any workers failing to carry out allocated work. When told that this would result in possible strike action the union was informed: ‘If they want to walk out they can do so, and we will see them when they come back.’
This was followed by the suspension, indefinitely, of two vacuum strippers who had been unable to complete the work allocated to them. An immediate stoppage took place.
The strikers, in the main young girls and women, were quite clear that the employers, J. and P. Coats Ltd, were out to destroy working conditions won over recent years. “They want to make us crawl.’ was how one woman summed it up. Further sackings are threatened Redundancies have already taken place and further sackings are threatened. Boys in the turning shop are at present only working four weeks out of five.
It is only some twenty-five years ago that a worker at the mills had to sign a form declaring that he was not a member of a trade union and had no intention of joining one. If the present methods of the management succeed then it will be only a short step to return to those conditions.
From a Correspondent