from a London correspondent
Just before Christmas (December 23rd) The Times carried an item from a Northorn correspondent about labour relations at the now Fords factory at Halewood. It argued that exscutives at the factory, which is noar Liverpool, attribute their succuss in avoiding labour troubles to their policy of selecting mon “on a basis of charactor rather than previous experience." Men aro given jobs because thy are fit, have good working records and have the “ability to work hard and fast under a shift system and to accept a fairly tight discipline." Despite this Ford are finding that "many (of those selected) cannot take kindly to hard, concentrated work over a period of hours,"
Special precoitions are being taken to exclude "local trouble makers." The company has fairly “extensive knowledge" of these gained by “exchanges of information with other employers" and “while there is no political discrimination the chances of an agitator getting an undercover job are slight. A few doubtful cases have slipped through the net, bit they are known. They will be allowed to go their ways in peace unless they try to stzrt somothing."
The recruit training system now includes a six-month course for prospective foromen, a course “which obviously owes a lot to Sandhurst, Dartmouth and Cranwell." One class visited "was tackling the problem @ how to deal with a man who was expecting promotion and who was not going to get it." 90% of the workers belong either to the TGW or to the NUGMW. Major questions of pay and conditions are to be negotiated at Dagenham but local problems are to bo dealt with by a newly—formed works committee, Full-timo union officials on Merseynide have "made it clear that thoy do not intond to have the initiative taken out their hands by shop stewards and are visiting the factory twice a week."