Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z1205/219
  • Title
    Male. Industrial relations lawyer and former brickworks Personnel Manager. b. 15.05.1939 SIDE A (00 mins)Born in Northern Ireland village. Mother was English, from Newcastle upon Tyne and his father went over to England to find work. After marrying, returned to Ireland and were there until her was 12, when they moved to Ravenglass on the coast of Cumbria where his father became maintenance foreman for the Muncaster Estate. In 1957 returned to Ireland. In 1958 he joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary, because he liked the smart uniform. Was a policeman for 11 years. Brother was killed in a road accident in 1946. Father was a joiner. The Irish village where they lived had three shirt factories there. Huge demand during the Second World War (1939-45) for armed forces. Post-war, the industry collapsed. (05 mins)Local clay pit employed 30-40 people. Only really knew his paternal grandfather, a peasant farmer, who died when he was 23. The other died when he was very young. The very small farms in Northern Ireland got smaller and smaller as they were split up on the death of the owner and divided between the sons. As a small boy he enjoyed being on the farm. Passed 11+ exam to grammar school. (15 mins)Mother preferred living in Cumbria because she had aunts living just ten miles away. Local children used to call him an "Irish pig" because they had the notion that all \Irish people kept a pig in their kitchen. Everyone called him "Paddy2 - no one knew his real name. Went to school by a special one-coach train, fifteen miles. Wonderful scenery. (20 miles)Northern Ireland has changed more than Cumbria over the years. Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) (25 mins)Before that he joined, from school at 16, the firm John Laing as a pupil surveyor, in Cumbria. Stayed for 3 years until he joined the RUC, aged 19. He was a rare Catholic members (only 10% of RUC, despite Catholics being 35% of population). Qualified as a sergeant. His sister was only 17 when their father died, and 18 when Mother died; he was 23/24. Got married the following year. Decided to do GCE 'A' Levels, by correspondence. Wasn't promoted any further because he was a Catholic. Police only used to send Catholics to areas where there were a lot of Catholics. After 'A' Levels, he gained admittance to Queen's University, Belfast. The RUC allowed him 3 hours a day to attend university while continuing his police duties. On completion of his degree in law, he was offered promotion to Inspector but resigned from the force. (30 mins)Became a lecturer in a local college. Felt that Law gave him a good broad-based education. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Full-time lecturer at Belfast College of Building Studies and also taught employment law part-time at Queen's University. Studied for a part-time Master's degree in law which he completed in 1970. Got bored with teaching. Went back to his old firm, John Laing, as Senior Industrial Relations Officer. Edward Heath's Conservative government passed a new |Industrial Relations Act in 1971 in an attempt to control trade unions which were regarded by many as having become too strong, but to counterbalance this, the concept of unfair dismissal was introduced. His employment law qualifications suddenly became very marketable. Moved to Leighton Buzzard and worked in London. Soon after he moved out of his police house in Northern Ireland, all police houses on that estate were bombed by the IRA. He had enjoyed his police work but had not seen long-term career prospects. (05 mins)In his family's interest, it was wise to move from Northern Ireland when he did. Got a job as Industrial Relations Officer for London Brick Co. in 1972 and remained for over 30 years, based in Stewartby. Old-fashioned, paternalistic firm. Sir Ronald Stewart was a delightful, old-world English gentleman as the Chairman, who was worked at Stewartby on Mondays and Fridays and in the London HQ on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It was unheard of for a member of management to resign and go to work elsewhere. The company had around 10,000 employees and his job was to deal with the trade unions. (10 mins)The company was heavily unionised. 30+ nationalities on the work force. One factory was exactly like another in term of process. Repetitive work. Industrial relations problems and militancy. Separate management of Staff (monthly salaried employees) as opposed to workers (weekly waged employees). Staff joined an Association, rather than a trade union, traditionally but later joined a management union. (15 mins)The Chairman only met trade unionists once or twice a year at annual wage negotiations. They were very nice to him because he gave them what he wanted. He favoured unionisation because it meant dealing with one body instead of lots of individuals. Those who had to deal everyday with trade unionists, at the sharp end, had a different opinion. There were five separate bargaining units for different sections of the work force. Difficulty in keeping level conditions between them in terms and conditions of work. An 8-week maintenance strike brought things to a head, when management insisted on all trade unions sitting down together. Management staff had to don overalls and do front-line work to keep work going. The unions eventually agreed to that.Mechanisation was accepted by unions but they asked for more pay for workers. (20 mins)Outside forces affected the company which had built its size and reputation on common bricks. Facing bricks came to be demanded more and Fletton bricks were pink brick with a veneer which could rub off, whereas other firms had different coloured bricks. Transport method had to overhauled to minimise damage to facing bricks. Strapping them together tightly , then mechanical handling, minimised damage and increase efficiently. Self-stack system introduced in 1972. The enabled a driver to drive on to a site and unload the bricks using his own crane in about 40 minutes, whereas manual handling took two hours. Drivers got more pay for operating sophisticated equipment and got more bonuses for making more "runs" per day. London brick drivers were the most highly paid drivers in the country for a long time.Then brick industry began shrinking as breeze blocks were increasingly used for interior walls on housing and more timber-framed houses. Huge contraction in the country's production over thirty years from 7 billion to 2 billion bricks. House prices also increased significantly and the cost of bricks became less important in the overall cost. Customers went for better quality, higher cost bricks.When he joined, in 1972, there were 23 London Brick Co. plants across the country, making bricks, nine sales offices and many railhead depots from which lorries collected bricks. Now there are only three original Fletton brickworks left. (25 mins)The brickworks provided income to an enormous number of workers. Deep attachment of workers for London Brick Co. Takeover by Hanson in 1984 brought radical change through reorganisation and mass redundancies. Bureaucracy had clogged up the company previously. Everyone was given more responsibilities and the management team slimmed down. Senior management reduced from several hundred people at Head Office to 13 people who ran the business. (30 mins)End of Side B.CONTINUED ON CS219C2 SIDE A (00 mins)Workers from continental Europe who had experienced harsh regimes in their youth were happy to knuckle down to boring repetitive work for up to forty years at the brickworks. (05 mins)Retired in 1992 but is still doing some work for the company as a consultant regarding new industrial relations law, since 1997. There are now 115 statutory rights for workers, as opposed to 52 prior to 1997. He is also a self-employed consultant. Doesn't think retiring is a good idea. (10 mins)Taught himself computer skills at the age of 58. (13 mins)End of Side A ORIGINAL INTERVIEW 75 mins.
  • Date free text
    26 March 2003
  • Production date
    From: 1935 To: 2003
  • Level of description
    item
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