"There was an air of enthusiasm with every man and woman prepared to do their own and any other job 24 hours a day if need be".
So said Sir Keith Granville,ultimately Chairman of BOAC about his life on joining Imperial Airways as a ten shillings a week trainee. (Source, reasearched by John Williams is the April 1974 edition of British Airways Overseas Divisions staff magazine "Speedbird" which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the creation of Imperial Airways).
And then there came the unions ostensibly to better the lot of the employee. Restrictive working practices, limited hours,sharp demarcation lines, meal breaks, rest periods,higher wages, all presumably to make the employee better paid and happier.
Or maybe not. Compare the happiness/smile factor of some highly unionised legacy airlines with their high pay,plethora of addtional allowances, generous rest periods, lengthy layovers and highly specific working practices with some of the more recent British and overseas lower paid, harder working and non or much less unionised and union minded ones. Which are less strike prone and the most pleasant to fly with? Which come over as the most human?
In any industry it's all about ethos,- and a realisation that hard work can be more interesting and satisfying than taking it easy and in extremis being bored out of one's skull all day. It can be argued that, far from making people's lives better and happier, the unions have disempowered them and turned interesting jobs into drudgery. Barriers between jobs and between employees and their managements have been artificially erected and exploited. Not surprising as unions need unhappy, not highly motivated, people. Where this demoralisation has happened it shows, be it in service businesses like airlines or in the Friday afternoon car. Sir Keith and his colleagues had it right, ten shillings a week and all.
