browseWills' Factory
Isabella Jedrzejczyk (Photographer), Ellin Hare (Writer)
Wills' Factory
Original Side Gallery exhibition text by Ellin Hare (1986):
The photographs and text in this exhibition were collected during a few weeks in May 1986 after the majority of the 600 strong workforce had left Wills’ in December 1985. Those that were left were engaged in the cleaning up process. Some were waiting to reach 50 years and qualify for their pensions: some were going to continue working for Wills’ at the new distribution depot being established on a trading estate in North Shields; some were still waiting for news of their transfers to Bristol or Nottingham branches of the combine. Also a workshop had been set up as an experiment to see whether or not it was a viable concern to refurbish machinery for resale to the third world. It had been found that some countries were interested in the less productive machinery due to their cheaper labour costs.
Because we were not involved at the time the closure was announced the statements are retrospective. People have had six months to reflect and come to terms with the situation.
As far as factories go, Wills’ was experienced as one of the more considerate employers. People felt they were not only losing a job but also relatively desirable conditions. We encountered strong loyalty to the company for whom people had all worked for over ten years and some for over thirty.
It became obvious to us that sustained industrial action to prevent the closure was never on the cards, although people had been aware for several years of the trends in cigarette smoking and related health issues. Because no one wanted to face the inevitable implications, no discussion about alternatives had been taking place. This may have been due to the feeling that the future was not in their own hands, and that, in any case, they would be looked after by the company.
Each person we talked to provided a different piece of the jigsaw and brought their own perspective to bear on the situation. We have brought these together in an attempt to provide a cohesive, if incomplete account of the experience and inform others facing a similar threat.
The older photographs were reprinted from an archive at Turner’s that was produced for Wills’ at the start and peak of the Newcastle factory's life.
I
I’ll tell you a funny thing, the staff canteen account in this company has always been called ‘housekeeping’ and it goes back to the days when there were Wills in the business, they sat at the head table and all the clerks sat down, and the house keeper sat at the bottom and he had his breakfast and his lunch and his dinner with his staff and they lived on the premises.
II
This company has always been paternally minded, one of the first to set up a pension, it was probably one of the first in me country ever to employ an industrial health sister. Way back in the 1890s they had doctors on the premises. On the other side of the coin, they could always do it because they always had a lot of money.
III
Imperial Tobacco grew too big and realised it had to diversify because it was sitting on a pot of gold, with a lot of money which it wished to diversify because it could see the tobacco market dropping away. So they started taking over companies. They took over Ross Fine Foods, Smedley’s, HP Sauce, hotels, they took over Courage Breweries, Imperial Inns and Taverns, also quite a few minor companies that have been picked up, all sorts of things that have come with acquisitions.
IV
They always did put the new machinery into Newcastle because it was a development area but they put the new machinery in and left it for the statutory time which I think is something like two or three years and then they would move it out to the rest of the areas, the high technology all went to Nottingham.
V
Since I started 13 years ago it was about that time they started whittling down, they closed the offices and they got all new machinery in to do away with a lot of people and there were very few starters after that, people left and they just did not replace them so it was down to about half the number. It did affect you though because in the sales office there were two or three times when they said we are going to close you down and then we managed to keep some of the work and we got a reprieve but every time that happened someone would go and then you would just say I wonder how long we have got. So for years now it has never been safe. There has always been that feeling.
VI
They used to make 900 fags a minute when I first came here. Now they make 7000. There used to be one fellow, three women, now there is one fellow, one woman, and it has gone up seven times, you know, the cigarettes. It’s amazing.
VII
Prior to last year’s budget they asked Nottingham people if they could handle 150 million cigarettes extra per week, just as an exercise. They said, ‘Oh well, OK.’ And they put a bit of overtime on and they did it. They were doing about 650 million and they went up to 800 million per week no problem. What they didn’t know was that it was an exercise to see if they could take this factory’s quota.
VIII
It just came through the mail one day from Head Office, following a meeting that was called by senior management, a meeting with trade union representatives from all the tobacco locations. The meeting was held in London. It was announced on the Sunday night, and on the Monday morning we, being the management here, had to stand up in front of a few hundred people each and read a big screed. The outcome really was that this factory had to close.
IX
Each location within the factory all had their own manager come in and read it to them, packing room, making room, warehouse, up in the restaurant, and everyone was read to at the same time by their own manager. There were girls crying. There were men sitting with their heads in their hands. When they actually got called in and were given their cheques and it was the final thing, it was just dreadful, it really was, there were grown men who were bosses sitting crying even one of the managers as he was handing over the cheques burst into tears, because it was like shooting your own family, it was just awful.
X
On June 6th last year if you had stood in here you would have stood here in shock. Our people expected it but it’s like everything else when you expect something and it happens. It is two different things. There were tears and everything. A little girl who worked with us on this section broke down and started to cry. She is married now but she just broke down and cried and we just walked away because we were all just going to cry with her. There was just silence, we were all just pole-axed.
XI
We have had Councillors in, we have had MPs in, and my opinion of the MPs is very low. They came in here, they were going to do everything, this, that and the other. They said they were going to ask questions in the House of Commons. I got Hansard every week and there were three paragraphs about the closure of a tobacco factory in the North East. Micky Brown, Ted Garratt, never said nothing. The Conservative fellow, Piers Merchant, I don't know what the hell he was doing, they just do not want to know.
XII
We attended lots of meeting and we really wanted the management not to close the location but to look around all the other locations where we knew there were people wanting to take their redundancy, and see how many people would volunteer, whether the figures would match and leave us as a production site and in fairness all the management were absolutely determined to close us down. We went and put very good emotional arguments, factual arguments, and they just had closed ears. They did not want to know, they had decided to close and they were determined to put that through.
XIII
The announcement was made on the Thursday and we had a half-day strike on the Friday. It was more of a gesture to show the management that we were unanimous in trying to fight it. It was a good idea because we did try to fight it. They got up all sorts of working parties and showed that this was one of the most efficient factories and that it was ludicrous to close this one down. They did try, the MPs were on our side for a while, the councils, and there was a lot of talk going on, but it was decided years ago really, they were just following the policies through, there was no way they were going to change their minds.
XIV
If you can imagine this place with in the region of 1200, 1400 people in it, and then to see it as it is now, and you have seen for yourself how it is now, it is very, very sad. It’s like a death. If you can imagine this place producing cigarettes by the million aiming for schedules at one time of 250 million per week - at the time when they had the big flood in Bristol we produced 308 million cigarettes in a week because people put themselves out, they worked all the hours that God sent because the company was in trouble, and then you get down to what we are looking at now - silent machinery, corridors that you see somebody in and you think, ‘Who is that?’ whereas before the place was abuzz with people all the time.
Postscript:
By June 1986 it was realised that the refurbishment plant would have to close. It was no longer a viable proposition, partly because it was using up the store of spare parts, which would be needed in the other factories. Six machines were actually completed. During Summer 1987, a squad (including pensioners) was invited in to strip the factory. They filled 130 container loads, due to be shipped out to Shanghai. China has bought all the machinery.
The building was made a Grade II listed building, just after the closure, to protect it from demolition, and is now for sale. The final closure is due on September 30th 1987 when the two remaining people will leave. Elsewhere, in Swindon a further closure has been effected, 200 people have been offered a similar voluntary redundancy scheme, or transfer to Bristol, where Imperial Tobacco is looking for a further 500 redundancies. The probability is that in 5 years time only the Nottingham factory will remain.