A WORKS DEPARTMENT.
With the beginning of the period the Federation’s works department may be said to have been fairly launched. The first extension of the biscuit factory had been carried out under the Society’s own auspices, and the foreman who had charge of that work was retained in the employment of the Society for repair work when the biscuit factory was finished. Then a blacksmith’s shop, which was a part of the buildings purchased by the Society in South York Street, was taken over by the Society, and a blacksmith was engaged; to be followed shortly afterwards by a plumber and a painter. The first job of any size to be tackled by the Society’s own building department, however, was the extension at the corner of Govan Street and South York Street. This job set the building department on its feet, for the total cost when finished was £29,000. From that time practically all the building work of the Society has been done by its own building department. At about the same time as the building department commenced a van building section also began work, and the first van was turned out complete in the middle of April 1896. So great was the demand for new vans, however, that for a time it could hardly be met. To some extent the boycott accounted for this, for the terrorism exercised by the traders’ organisation extended to the van building firms as well as to others, and eventually all the work of this department was done either by the Federation’s own department or by that of the Wholesale Society.