“END of the line” was the main front-page headline in the Glasgow Herald of October 13, 1979, when the closure of the huge Singer sewing-machine factory in Clydebank was announced, with the loss of 3,000 jobs.
Company executives put much of the blame on what it said was the workers’ low productivity. The market, they added, had declined because of changing fashions and cheap, ready-to-wear clothes, mainly from the Far East.
Bruce Millan, who had been Scottish Secretary of State under Labour until the previous May, accused Singer management of breaking a “solemn promise” over the factory’s long-term future, given to him when Labour were in power in 1978. He said they had promised to “maintain a substantial operation” in Clydebank, and he now called on the Thatcher government to intervene.
The STUC said the Singer plan, the beginning of a two-year, worldwide restructuring by the firm, could turn Clydebank into the Jarrow of the 1970s. STUC general secretary James Milne said the closure was a disaster, and said the trade union movement to fight to reverse the decision.
The factory had long been a key presence in Clydebank, having been built in 1882-1885. By 1885 it was the largest factory in the world. Its products were sent all over the world.
The famous Singer clock tower (main image) was a landmark, but it was demolished in 1963 to make way for new workshops.
In June 1978 Singer wanted to cut its Clydebank workforce from 4,800 to some 2,000 by 1982, because of the shrinking market and strong Japanese competition. It took powerful UK government pressure, including a personal exchange between Prime Minister Jim Callaghan and US president Jimmy Carter, to persuade them to think again.
* More tomorrow
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