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2. A Family Firm
One can
always bring to mind the happier moments of one’s working life as
opposed to the not quite so pleasant. Remembering the factories and
what they produced for local, national and export markets can be
found in old records. But of even greater importance is
the workforce, from tea boy to factory owner.
Early
factories usually had family ownership, directorships came later and
were dished out first to the family members and then to key white
collar workers. It was rare to find a shop floor, blue
collar worker elevated to the board room in the early days of
industry. The union movement did however force some management to
promote union leaders to posts of importance and responsibility, mainly
to help prevent strikes or stoppages. When the choice was
to be put on the staff payroll with better pension schemes and
longer holiday or continue to serve his mates of the union then, as
in most things, money talks to save money in the long run.
Some dedicated leaders did look to their family commitments
first, though in earlier
days the gaffer would eat much longer than the chaps on strike.
Membership of a union could be a two edged sword, obtaining a better
deal and fair price for a good days work, but sometimes killing and
closing the place of employment.
James Gibbons was in the main the sort of
family owned concern that predominated in the Black Country.
Later would come takeovers that destroyed the respect of the work
force for the management. To be part of a family on the shop floor
is quite different to being a number in the clocking on rack".
Many a worker at the Gibbons factory would start as a
boy and stay all of his working life. Fifty years service was
commonplace.
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