Scottish NHS

[stivis]

They were a good company to work for, even allowing for the dangerous materials that were handled there. They however actively discouraged the three town councils from attracting other industries to the area.
Now they have taken their business elsewhere and left the area desolate.
Regarding Alfred Nobel, since he died in 1896 he can hardly be blamed for the management decisions taken during the last hundred years.

Consider Vauxhall wanting to build a plant at Ravenspark that was one, later on they didn't want Volvo,
The unions were part of the problem, We're they "bent"?..........A common practise was promotion of "troublemakers" to management
I witnessed an incedent where the Union man stated "Right lads, I think we should return to work for the 2/6 offered by management!!"
Boiiiing, as the Knife went into to the Table and a gentleman said..." We're the ones who say what we go back for,Want to argue?"
Plus Union meetings......Upstairs of the Crown
It is arguable if the wages were good,


I make no apology for mentioning the Song "Blue Sky Mine"
For Wittenoom read Stevenston

The song refers to the Wittenoom asbestos mine in Western Australia where blue asbestos was mined between 1947 and 1966. The once-thriving town is now a virtual ghost town. Shops are boarded up, the two schools are closed, the local cinema is derelict. In their ignorance, the original settlers used asbestos in gardens, school yards and roads. Wittenoom is without doubt Australia's greatest industrial disaster and it is estimated that 25% of the 20,000 men who mined asbestos there will die from related diseases. >>
The music came out of an idea Jim Moginie (the band's guitarist/keyboardist) had when he was 15, but the song went through a huge transition in the studio. The album's producer, Warne Livesey, told Blurt Magazine: "That song actually started out as a different song. After we had started the song it felt a little lacking and I came up with the idea of giving it more of a Motown feel. We started working on the Vox organ riff and then Martin [Rotsey, guitarist] came up with the echo guitar part and the guys wrote a new chorus inspired by that. It was a more convoluted process but it worked out well."
In the midst of their Blue Sky Mining tour, Midnight Oil stopped in New York City to stage a protest outside the Exxon Oil building in Manhattan to hold the company accountable for the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Alaska the year before. During the eight-song set - including "Blue Sky Mine" and a cover of John Lennon's "Instant Karma" - Oils vocalist Peter Garrett stated, "We can't treat the world like a garbage dump, and there's more to life than profit and loss."

Hey, hey-hey hey
There'll be food on the table tonight
Hey, hey, hey hey
There'll be pay in your pocket tonight

My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
A life that is led is no more than a token
Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why
If I yell out at night there's a reply of bruised silence
The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence
They blew the lights at heaven's gate and I don't know why

But if I work all day at the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)

The candy store paupers lie to the share holders
They're crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky
So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night
And if the blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company won't save me
Who's gonna save me?

But if I work all day...

And some have sailed from a distant shore
And the company takes what the company wants
And nothing's as precious, as a hole in the ground

Who's gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in
Who's gonna save me?
We've got nothing to fear

In the end the rain comes down
Washes clean, the streets of a blue sky town

And finally,
While Nobel died over 120 years ago, it's his legacy and really work practises that drag on, He was the Haliburton of his day

[exile]

For Wittenoom read Stevenston

Fascinating, thank you.
In this area of people policy, I once heard the head of Personnel at Nobel's described as a man "who could walk unner a snake wi' a lum hat oan".
Used that expression ever since.

[Hughie]

I once heard the head of Personnel at Nobel's described as a man "who could walk unner a snake wi' a lum hat oan".
Used that expression ever since.

Absolute classic!

[marie cecilia]

Stivis, You've got your Dalry hospitals confused. Your directions for Davidshill will take you to the Cottage Hospital or Seik Hoose. Davidshiil was an Infectious Disease hospital on the back road between Highfield and Longbar. Just saying...

[stivis]

Yes, I'd always thought it was mutually beneficial to have their cradle to grave care - but I know ICI encouraged employees to stand for town and county council to block industrial development ensuring their full workforce - the garnock valley sewer renewal was a case in point.
Top

That was a theory,however in the late 70 early 80 at a (Nylon Plant) strike a union rep stood up and said (I paraphrase)" Right lads, I think we should go back as they have offered 2/6 an hour" the reply from one was as a knife went into the Table . . . . . "We'll tell you when we're going back !!!!"
amidst accusations of the UR working for ICI
It is unwise to NOT to relate ICI welfare to profits , Consider which was the most important?
It is also important to remember as I have posted before where ICI actually hampered investment ( I mentioned Vauxhall at Bogside before)
ICI were unhappy about SKF, Monsanto and latterly Beechams for stealing the workforce, folk were generally paid higher and had better conditions,Incidentally the last I mentioned Beechams took a lot of Engineers from ICI directly as in fact the Nylon plant did( plus ICI Dumfries ,Nobel Annan all for Higher rates)
I have mentioned before about ICI and Employment and John Dunlop's comments
To upset non-Stevensonians , Stevenston was in ICI and Ardrossan, Saltcoats burgh's mind the donkeys to do the work and them to prosper
To bring it back to the title
Beechams first product was a Laxative