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Prepared
for the Ministry of Labour
And
National Service
By
the Ministry of Information,
LONDON
HIS
MAJESTY’S STATIONARY OFFICE
First
published 1944, price 9d [that's about 5p of today money!]
The
Willenhall Local History wish to thank Mrs. Shehla Baig, for undertaking
the voluntary transcribing of this booklet and many other documents.
Each section below
is a link to that relevant part of the booklet.
| EACH
TO OUR PART, EACH TO OUR STATION;
All persons, rich and poor, employer or workman, man or women and
all property.” The
trumpets were sounding at last. |
| BRITISH
ROLLS UP ITS SLEEVES;
22nd May we were a free-and-easy democracy, much too
free-and-easy to fight a total war. On 23rd May it
looked as if we had taken a jump into a totalitarian regime; |
| THE
IMPOSSIBLE HAPPENS;
Only
a miracle could save us. It happened and we were saved.
|
| THE
BATTLE OF BRITAIN;
The
weary war workers, at the end of this summer, now found themselves
thrust into the front line, for they themselves, their homes,
their factories, were now the target of the Nazis war machine
|
| THE
PLAN EMERGES: THE FIGHTING MEN;
Our manpower story will deal with the actual business of
mobilizing the people for total war. They concern the first of the
three basic principles, namely, to secure, within the limits of
our war economy, that each citizen is so engaged that the maximum
use is made of his or her ability. |
| INDIVIDUAL
DEFERMENT;
Reserved
Occupations was a system of block reservation, with men
automatically kept out of Forces simply because they belong to
various occupational groups. Some further refinements were soon
found to be necessary. Firms were divided into “protected” and
“unprotected” establishments, according to the urgency of the
work they were doing |
| WOMEN
IN UNIFORM; Women
badly needed for the Auxiliary Services, which undertake a variety
of duties, from guiding a night bomber back to a station by a
radio to catering for a thousand-man that would set free the
services of men. |
| CIVIL
DEFENCE; Like
men women are liable for compulsory civil defence duties and
fire-watching outside their normal working hours. By
administration women responsible for the care of children under
14, and others whose personal circumstances would make such a
definite hardship, are exempted |
| NEW
MILLIONS FOR THE WAR INDUSTRIES;
The industrial mobilisation, the regrouping of the workers for
total war. The supply of manpower to the war industries is as
important as the supply of men to the Forces, and represents far
more intricate problem |
| LEARNING
THE ROPES; Many
of the larger factories have their own training departments. In
addition, to a high degree of skill is being given in the Ministry
of Labour Training Centres, supplemented by training at a large
number of Technical Colleges, and similar institutions |
| DISABLED
WORKERS; 1941
an interim scheme for vocational training and placing of
employment of disabled person was introduced. |
| THEY
COME FROM THE COMMONWEALTH;
Special
training schemes for West Indians and natives of India. Nearly 200
skilled technicians were brought over from Jamaica in 1941, when
the need in the war factories was acute, and they were placed in
employment in factories and workshops |
| KEEPING
CHECK ; The
control and distribution of the available labour. We could not
hope to build our war machine in pre-war conditions of employment.
Thus, in the early days of rearmament, firms with war contracts
spent much time and money “poaching” skilled labour. |
| THE
DOCKER COMES INTO HIS OWN;
Since the early months of 1941 special Orders have been applied to
particular industries, such as shipbuilding and repairing,
building and civil engineering, mining, dock labour, the iron and
steel trades, the Merchant Navy and the railways. Here is the
story of Jack Smith, which shows what has happened to him under
these Orders. |
| WOMEN
CALLED TO WAR; In
war factories of every kind throughout the country these women at
work, girls and women who not long ago were shop assistants,
luxury trade hands, chambermaids, domestic servants, waitresses,
chorus girls, housewives, now working to produce aircraft, tanks,
guns, bombs and shells. |
| NOT
TOO OLD AT FIFTY; All
women from 18 to 50 inclusive have been registered, and this
completes the present program of registrations. Unless a women has
children under 14 under her care, or already engaged in work
necessary to the war efforts, she is called to the nearest
Employment Exchange for an inter view. |
| WHAT
CAN YOU DO?; Women
registered for national service will be available, if at all, for
local work only, and probably in the main for local part-time
work. This being so, it is important to find out at an early stage
which women are able to leave home to fill jobs in areas where
there is a great demand for labour. The older the age groups, the
fewer women they contain who can be transferred for war work to
other areas. But many of these women can be used to replace in
their own areas young “mobile” women in jobs in office and
shops that are not directly connected with the war, but that still
necessary to the community |
| THE
COLOURS OF THE PLAN; A
ghost of a plan, merely haunting a chaotic Britain. As it is, the
country is divided into a system of colored areas. The scarlet
areas are those where there is an urgent demand for unskilled
women that can only be met by bringing in women from beyond their
daily traveling distance. In other words, these are the areas that
are badly in need of “mobile” unskilled women. Then there are
Red; |
| PART
TIME LABOUR; Part-time
employment has to be organized very carefully. The worker
obviously cannot travel a long distance, and often supply and
demand cannot be found in the same place. The present figure of
part-time workers is roughly estimated at about 840,00. |
| BALANCE
SHEET OF MOBILISATION; Something
that has bewildered and sometimes embittered a great many
citizens, who complain that the Ministry’s policy seems to take
many twists and turns. Now in its primary task of mobilising the
nation’s manpower, of regrouping industries and workers for
total war, the Ministry has moved forward fairly steadily |
| AN
ARMY OF TWENTY-THREE MILLIONS; The
great mobilisation are very impressive. There are in Great Britain
33,100,00 persons aged from 14 to 64 inclusive. This figure
comprises 15,900,000 men and 17,200,000 women; of these women,
most of whom are married, |
| ON
THE CHANGE; Registering
and interviewing has taken place at the 1,225 local offices of the
Ministry, which range from first-class Employment Exchanges to
small Branch Offices. The day had arrived when these Employment
Exchanges, which once had only been haunted by shabby groups of
the unemployed, were really exchanging employment, were the lively
local centres of our National Service organisation |
| WAGES
AND WORKING CONDITIONS; This
chapter of our manpower story, to the second of the three basic
principles on which the whole structure of mobilisation rests,
namely, to set that working and living conditions are as
satisfactory as is possible in war time. |
| THE
PURPOSE AND THE PLAN; Workers
are to be directed to employment, and if their right to leave that
employment is to be severely questioned, then any glimmer of
social justice, to say nothing of any sensible consideration of
war-time morale, suggests that the conditions under which they
work should be reasonably satisfactory. Therefore |
| WELFARE:
MAKING THE BEST OF IT; Factory
and welfare Department was set up which took over factory Act
administration and the Factory Inspectorate from the Home Office
and included a new Welfare Department to help in developing the
arrangements for the welfare of the war workers outside the
factories. At the same time the Factory and Welfare Advisory Board
was appointed to advise on the health, safety and general welfare
inside the factories, and the lodging, feeding and general welfare
arrangements outside the factories. |
| A
MILLION MEALS A DAY; the
Chief Inspector of Factories authority to direct any munitions
factory employing more than 250 people to maintain a suitable
canteen where hot meals could be brought by the workers. Early in
1941, similar Orders were applied to building and civil
engineering works and docks. At the end of 1943 the number of
factories with more than 250 workers, and were there were
canteens, was 4,870; also about 5,700 factories with less than 250
workers have canteens selling hot meals |
| MOTHERS
AND CHILDREN; Mothers
of small children should be free, if they so desire, to undertake
full or part-time work, war-time nurseries have been established
by local authorities. By December, 1943, 1,450 of these nurseries
were open, allowing accommodation for over 65,000 children.
Another 160 were being set up, to make place for a further 8,500
children. Provision had also been made for 121,000 children under
five in public elementary schools while their mothers were |
| THE
MEN OF THE MERCHANT NAVY; [Note I have included the chapter
dealing with "Under the Red Ensign" within this section]
A Seamen’s
Welfare Board has been set up by the Ministry of Labour to advise
on all questions concerning the welfare of British Allied and
Foreign seamen in British ports, and of the crews of British ships
in overseas ports. Port Welfare Committees have been set up in the
chief ports here, and Seamen’s Welfare Officers have been
appointed to act as secretaries to these Committees as officers of
the Department. Merchant Navy Houses providing residential
accommodation have been set up at Cardiff, Grimsby, Glasgow, Hull,
Leith, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Newport, others are |
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