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Creating a new labour force - entry of women into the workforce
It was found that the skilled labor available often was not sufficient to meet the demands of production. By careful handling, skilled men have been promoted and their ability used in the highest technical processes; and semiskilled labor, much of which had to be transferred from other trades, callings and -crafts, has had to be brought in. It has been interesting to witness people from as wide a range as those engaged in the printing trades, as artists, shopkeepers and office men, being converted into engineering workers with great rapidity. To do this, of course, there has had to be a voluntary relinquishment by the trades unions of trade union customs and rules, and this has been carried out without any serious dislocation or difficulty.
We, like you [referring to an American readership - PB], passed through a great depression, and during that period many people who had been apprenticed to certain trades had to leave them and find employment elsewhere—and, in passing, I think one ought to say that no nation can afford to allow its skill to run to waste as it was allowed to do during the last twenty years. When we get into trouble like this, the value of skilled workers becomes acutely apparent. It is one of the principal keys to the safety of a country and a vital element in defense. We had to get these workers to leave their new occupations— many of them in steady jobs—and return to essential war work. The method adopted was to register and classify them according to their previous experience. In shipbuilding, for example, anyone who had left the trade within the past fifteen years was asked to respond to this registration and many have been transferred back in order to contribute to the war effort and especially to the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic.
Then we had to tap new sources of labor, and to do that we are beginning to register the age groups over the present military age, that is to say over forty-one, and to find out whether they are engaged on essential work. If they are not, then the powers which Parliament has bestowed upon the Minister of Labor are used to direct them to the work essential to the war effort.
Then there was the question of women. The tremendous call-up of man power for the fighting Services caused an enormous gap that had to be filled, and it therefore became necessary to bring into industry thousands of women who, in the normal way, would not be engaged in either office or factory. In order that it might be done with as little disturbance as possible, we are now, as productive capacity comes more into play, registering women of twenty and twenty-one, and others will be registered later. Out of this registration we are proceeding to fill up the vacancies in the Services. By Services I mean Nursing Services, Civil Defense, the Land Army, and work which women can do in the Navy, Army and Air Force, such as motor driving, cooking, secretarial and office duties; as storewomen, telephonists, teleprinters, in mess and kitchen work. This releases large numbers of men for the actual fighting line. The women are responding magnificently, are very keen to serve and are doing a good job.
Many more women have to be found for the factories to produce war equipment, to fill shells and for the public services such as street car services, postal services, and so on.
Thousands of these splendid women, are married and have families, and I do not suppose anyone in this country thought, before the war, that a nursery school or a nursery center was necessary as a part of our defensive organization, but I assure you it is. First, from the point of view of looking after the children and the future generation; and second, in order to release the women to take their place in the workshop. It has been a handicap to us that there were not enough of these nurseries so we have had to improvise. We are registering those willing to undertake the- duty of looking after the children of other families while their fathers and mothers are in the factories, and have arranged for a proportion of the cost to be paid by the State. We are also extending our day nurseries and centers.
In order to provide this essential man and woman power, we have had to cut down every kind of luxury trade and less essential work. Many factories are being closed, and the limited amount of production necessary is being concentrated in fewer factories. The people so released are available for one or other of the Services or for war production.