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For anyone still in doubt, the days of the good old family firm are well and truly over, and if more proof were needed, take a look at the Imperial Tobacco Group Limited. The exploits of this combine spread far beyond the Tobacco Division, itself taking in four great neames in the manufacture of cigarettes, tobaccos, cigars and snutts, namely W.D.&.H.O.Wills, John Player & Sons, Ogden's, and Churchmans. But Imperial now has fingers in other pies! Its Food Division alone takes in Golden Wonder Ltd, HP Sauce Ltd, Ross Group Ltd, manufacturers of frozen foods, and National Canning Co. Ltd, one of its subsidiaries being Smedley's Ltd, manufacturers of canned and quick frozen foods, and this is to mention but a few! Its Paper and Board Division takes in St Ann's Board Mill Company Ltd and Robert Fletcher & Son Ltd. 'ts Distributive Trade Division includes Finlay & Company Ltd, Robert Sinclair Ltd. And its General Trade Division takes in manufacturers of glass bottles, plastic products, yarns and textiles, and also includes property owners. In addition the Imperial Tobacco Group has a host of associated companies, including Mardon, Son & Hall Ltd, folding cartons and colour printing, Celloglas Ltd film laminating and varnishing, and others, too many to mention. And not to forget, jointly owned with two others companies, E.S.L. (Bristol) Ltd, designers and manufacturers of teaching aids and special purpose electronic control equipment and film producers.
Well, that sets the scene, and shows the immense size and power of the Imperial Tobacco Group (I.T.G.) But I now want to focus particular attention on the Tobacco Division and see what tricks Imperial are up to in maintaining their empire and keeping the profits rolling in at a rate that affords the Chairman of the Board of Directors to be paid the mere sum of £36,000 a year, E692 a week for his efforts! Within the Tobacco Division I shall concentrate mainly on Wills as this Company is particularly expert in maintaining the myth of the paternal family firm which "takes care of its workers". If this should be doubted, the second paragraph of W.D.&.H.O.Wills" pamphlet "Pacemakers in Tobacco reads:- "The firm takes its name from the two sons of the founder, Henry Overton Wills, whose family soon became well known not only for the quality of their produets but as enlightened employers and benefactors of Bristol", And the sad truth is that this myth is still largely believed by the women at Wills, who see the firm as good employers; it is true they may appear more "enlightened" than many others but they are still only using the workers as instruments for their own end, which is to keep the profits rolling in, It is this myth that holds back class consciousness and helps prevent the workers from realizing that the ouly thing that will "take care" of them will be for them to take control of the factory and run it for themselves, And it is this myth that the Socialist Woman Group has tried to smash. W.D.&.H.O.Wills was founded in Bristol nearly 200 years ago. It is the largest member of the Imperial Tobacco Group with seven factories in Bristol, Glasgow, Newcastle and Swindon, and distribution centres in London and Belfast. It employs 11,000 workers the majority of whom are women, and it holds over one third of the British market in cigarettes, tobaccos and cigars. and how they grow...
"PAY PROFICIENCY"-OR CARROT & WHIP What state of affairs exists in the factory to keep the myth of the "good employer" going? Well, lets look at one trick which might suggest that the boss is really quite a generous bloke for those who are willing to do their bit! -P.P.S. the Pay Proficiency Scheme -In affect Measured Day Work (M.D.W,) adopted by the whole Cigarette Industry several years ago. This works differently in different factories e.g. production in some jobs is determined by a machine not the operator, or else, in the case of the girls who are catchers, their production is determined by the cigarette machine operator, usually a man! For girls on the cigar making machines Production and "usings" (economic use of tobacco leaf) work together to determine grade and money. And they can work at their own rate and control their own production which can fluctuate between five grades. As well as the number of cigars they produce, also taken into account is efficiency on wrapper utilization, the biggest outlay for the firm being tobacco. So that the management asks for at least 95% usings, and if this is not met, higher production would be expected to compensate. If both are too low, dropping a grade is risked, with a drop in money.
WHO ASSESSES THE BOSS?
Now, the rate for the job is worked out by job assessment, which has been going in Wills for years. Under job assess ment, so many points are given to: job knowledge, mental requirements, responsibility, working conditions and physical demands. Each of these is assessed, and the total is worked out to categories of scale, points awarded then ® M.D.W. - the Carrot that BITES BACK!!
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places them in a category with a corresponding rate of pay. At present there are seven categories for women and ten for men, both different rates of pay for men and women with the same points, but in preparation for Equal Pay in 1975, it is assumed these categories will be lumped together to make ten categories for both men and women. However, evaluating the job in this way is a dodge for the employer, as in the process of production, a cleaner is of equal necessity, value and worth as a mechanic, and so should be equally rewarded. It is this principle that the employers will no doubt totally ignore when it comes to assessing the jobs that are especially reserved for women! A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR Still, if this rouses suspicions that the firm isn't quite so generous as it makes out to be, it'll soon try to put that to rights with its annual bonus-called the "gift" from the Company to all employees. In fact this is less a charity than downright blackmail! After a percentage cut in the profits has been worked out for the shareholders, it's decided what percentage of each worker's gross wages, say 14%%, over the last financial year shall be given back out of the fruits of her labour as a bonus or gift! (which is taxed) (it might be pointed out that the workers have worked for their humble share of the profits, whereas only the capital of the shareholders has earned theirs!). So the higher an employee's annual earnings i.e. production i.e. hard work and overtime, the more the "gift". This money can be withdrawn or withheld by the management and is non-negotiable. What's more, this money, probably roundabout £100, is stopped if strike action is taken without giving 21 days notice. It is therefore used by the firm as a threat over the employees' heads, as a means of taking away the most important day-to-day weapon the workers have in fighting their class enemy-the withholding of their labour.
D.D.S.-THE DIRTY DISGUSTING SWINDLE Now, all these bribes and blackmails don't appear to be keeping up production high enough for the firm, as the management recently had a go in Bristol No.1 and No.4 factories at introducing a productivity deal in disguise! D.D.S. Double Day Shift, In a four page pamphlet to the workers, called "D.D.S.-What's in it for me?" the management listed "the Pros and Cons". . Needless to say. there were more reasons why workers should, rather than shouldn't choose D.D.S., the management trying to bribe the workers with monetary rewards, into utterly disrupting their lives to push up output for the firm. The offer this time was a 172% shift premium on top of the agreed consolidated rate. Thus, a woman production employee in job group 3 with a basic wage of £18.65p. would receive an extra E3.26p (17%%), totalling E21.91p. In addition to this, employees changing to D.D.S. would qualify for a "once only" lump sum payment of £110 for men and £90 for women (ours is just for the little extra, girls!). The Bristol Socialist Women Group put out a leaflet to the workers—"D.D.S.—Dirty Disgusting Swindle-What's really in it for you?" which we hope roused some suspicion of the dirty deal the management were trying to push onto them. The management's justification for D.D.S. was twofold: "to have enough spare capacity to carry out maintenance and overhaul programmes and still meet our sales commitments; and to maintain full production whilst reinstalling machinery at Harteliffe", But they both mean the same thing increased exploitation. Giris! take the increased money and tell them to stuff D.D.S. and any other conditions!
WHAT'S THE FUTURE?
What's the future for the tobacco industry? This is very hard to say. Cigarettes were holding their own until the health scare, when sales dropped a bit, but they have picked up since. Cigars are doing all right and in fact Wills can't make enough of them and have asked Churchmans in Ipswich to help them out in meeting their schedule. On the ITS AGIRL other hand, Churchmans in Bristol, always the poor relation to Wills, recently made 32 workers redundant on the basis that they did not have enough work. Bristol Socialist Woman Group campaigned on behalf of these women"Are you the Cinderellas of the tobacco world?"
, suggesting that they demand their union, in this case the Transport & General Workers Union, fight for no redundancies and work-sharing within the Imperial Tobacco Group. There was much angry feeling about the redundancies amongst the workers, expressed at a factory gate meeting with Bristol SWG one dinner our. But to prevent a turther advance in rank-and-file militancy, after a meeting with union officials inside the factory, jobs were found for the redundant workers at Wills(the big brother to Churchman). So we can see that industrial groups like Imperial Tobacco. can still find room for manoeuvre when pushed!
TRUE COLOURS(?)-COMMON MARKET So though the union bureaucrats and bosses managed to fulfill this very basic demand, future disputes may not be solved so peacefully. With the present economic crisis and the entry of Britain into the Common Market, the firm will be forced to push the workers further and further, and so take the glint off its "enlightened" reputation, Entry into the Common Market could go either way for the tobacco industry, cigarettes unlikely to be greatly affected as continental flavours are not easily adopted, but cigars, more alike in taste, are likely to come under a threat from cheaper and lesser quality cigars made in Holland for instance. Wills" high quality (no dusting, dyeing or additives on the continent), in this situation, could get the better of their rivals" lower price, and they may even push up sales by gaining markets on the continent. But if not, and even if so, with the economic crisis hitting the whole of Western Europe, the firm will be forced to attempt to improve efficiency and push up its schedule. In this situation the workers will be forced to defend themselves, and their unions, mainly the Tobacco Workers Union and also the small Cigarette Operators and Mechanies Society, should be made to fight to protect their members' interests. But more than this, instead of merely being in a position of defence, as consciousness of class conflict develops, it would be hoped that growing shop-floor rank-and-file militancy and organisation would go on the attack against the employers, and finally get rid of the myth that there exists any such thing as a "good employer"!
Peggy Davies.
Bristol Socialis! Woman Group JUST AS A MATTER OF INTEREST: Figures just published in the Financial Times on changes in company profits and dividends over the last year put Tobacco top of the league, with trading profits of £308,488,000 a rise of 18,7% over 1970 (the average rise was 8.1%) and dividends paid out of E64,313,000 a rise of 6.7% compared with the average rise in dividends of 3%. Over double the average in both cases.