THE SOCIETY AND ITS EMPLOYEES.
Hitherto the relations of the Society with its employees had been cordial, but with the growth of the Operative Bakers’ Trade Union restrictions began to be applied which sometimes worked a little unfairly against the Society, particularly in its competition with firms in which the bakers were not well organised. The directors always came to an amicable arrangement with the Union, however. A rather remarkable decision by the Union is referred to in the minute of 19th August 1898, which states that “A deputation from the Bakers’ Union had waited on us anent our foreman having suspended thirty men for two half-days. This had been done owing to our stock accumulating, and this was explained to the deputation, who stated that the Union preferred the dismissal of men and jobbers taken on when required.” The minute proceeds, “Although this was much against the wish of the committee, they had no alternative but to dismiss eight men from the smallbread department.” The question was raised at the next quarterly meeting, and the chairman somewhat amplified the statement contained in the minute by stating that the difficulty had been with the biscuit bakers. At that season of the year, the trade in hand-made biscuits went down owing to the holiday season, and as it was not desirable that these biscuits should be kept too long in stock the foreman had suspended the men for two afternoons. The usual procedure was to do the pastry in the mornings and the biscuits in the afternoons, and the foreman thought it better to suspend the men than to do without the services of any of them. The Union pointed out that their great difficulty was to prevent this practice creeping in all over the city, as it might become a serious thing for the men. The sub-committee had a meeting with the men, and a vote was taken on whether they preferred to be suspended or that some of their number should be dismissed, when, by a very large majority, they voted in favour of suspension. The following week, however, they held another meeting under the auspices of their Union, at which they reversed their former decision, and intimated that they were now unanimously in favour of dismissal, so that the committee had no alternative but to agree and engage “jobbers,” although this meant increasing this class of worker.
At this time there was also some friction amongst the workers in the oatcake factory. When the oatcake factory was started, the women engaged mixed their own meal, but, later, with the object of introducing machinery into this section of the factory, a man was put in to do the mixing, as an experiment. The man was mixing for twenty-four women, who had only to do their own cutting and firing. The chairman explained that, as the result of a week’s experiment, the foreman had fixed the number of parcels to be baked by these women at nineteen, which was the average of the numbers produced by all these women. All the women said the mixing of the dough was the heaviest part of the work, and the result was that those who were getting their dough mixed for them were finished before those who had to do their own mixing, and, in addition, with the new arrangement, the dough was more evenly mixed. The subject was not pursued further at that meeting, but from what took place at the following meeting, it seemed that it had been much canvassed in the interval, especially in Kinning Park Society. According to the chairman,
[[2]]“There had been some discontent after the last general meeting, and they were just getting over it when certain statements were made in Kinning Park Society which again caused discontent amongst the girls. Previous to this question being raised, the girls were doing all that was asked of them without complaint. The system was an experiment, and would have been past that stage now had the question not been raised. It was the intention of the committee to consider the girls’ wages in event of the trial being successful, but even that had been prevented now. As a result of the discussion, the work was not being done. The Society was not getting one third of the work which was being got by other bakers in this department. It had been stated also that the department was in an insanitary condition, and the gentleman who made the statement confessed that he had done so simply from report. It had been said that the girls were being slowly poisoned. The books of the Society, however, showed that that was not so, but that the average sickness here was not half of other departments where extreme heat had not to be contended with.”
[2]. Co-operative News, 10th December 1898.
After some discussion and an expression of opinion that the chairman had vindicated the position of the board, the subject was again dropped. At a later period it was stated that the arrangement referred to had proved so satisfactory that the wages of the girls were increased by 1/ per week.
At this meeting the appointment and wages of the engineer were discussed at some length, and it was suggested that the wages which were being paid to him were not enough for the job, but it was explained by the chairman that his wages would be raised after he had proved his capacity.