One man, One job

I watched Greenock Shipyards slowly die. In my opinion

I hated the union rule " One man, one Job "

The quote " One man, one job " haunts the life out of me, when I started my apprenticeship as a Plumber at Mitchell's, corner West Stewart St. & Nicholson St in 1952, I wasn't asked, I was told I had to be in the union, now Mitchell's were very proud of their apprentices and you were given a trade on conditions, you had to go to night school twice a week, and a day at James Watt Collage, Mitchell's wanted their plumbers to be the best in Greenock

I

 was trained in every thing, from hard metals and soft metals, lead burning, welding, brazing, in fact every aspect in plumbing, right through to our City & Guilds exams.

When I worked on the Shipyards as a plumber, . if I wanted to bring my hot & Cold water pipes through a bulk-head ( Wall ) 1st. I had to find a " Marker ", he would chalk the section of bulkhead and using a compass, draw a 2 inch or 3 inch circle or what ever was needed, 2nd we would have a " Centre Dabber ", who would come and mark round the circle, 3rd we had to get Oxy- acetylene cutter, to cut the hole in the bulk-head, after these three workers had finished, I could put my pipes through, then I would have to go and find a " Tacker " an electric welder who tacked the pipes to the bulkhead before I was allowed to move on

Now !! I was qualified to do all of these actions needed to get the Hot & Cold water pipes through to the next cabin, BUT !!! the " One man, One Job " was quoted, I could have done the job in ..say 30 Minutes...where as, depending where on the ship these different men were, this action could take me 3/5 days, sometimes even longer.

You don't have to be a mathematician, to count up the cost of putting pipes through, I only used this as an example, but this " One man, One job " affected every trade on the ship-building, you weren't even allowed to clear up a cabin floor to start work, we had to find a " Sweeper Upper ", who was generally a almost retired worker

I can say I had the pleasure of working on the Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, when they both docked at the " Tail O' the bank ", and the Royal Yacht Britannia at Clydebank, but due to the " One man, One job ", the cost of Ship building on the Clyde, was so high, other countries could build the ships at a third of the cost

When I came out of the army in the 50's I returned to Mitchell's the plumbers, 2 days back I was approached by the union Rep. I packed up my tool box and walked out, I don't understand unions, and don't like them