jbilton wrote:....I would expect that any skilled workers found jobs, in better managed industries.
If a company cannot compete,and still give their workers decent conditions, they often go under.
Loss of orders is nearly always due to poor management.
At least the other company is still Australian I presume?
Better than the UK, we just gave up and buy everything from abroad these days.....
Hello Jon,
It's not quite as straightforward as that - Comeng was one of a number of rolling stock builders within the Sydney Metro Area - basically, prior to the 70's there was Comeng (originally named Waddington's Limited), Clyde Engineering, Tulloch's and A. E. Goodwin. Prior to the 50's there were two other smaller firms, Superior Weld (merged with Goodwins) and Richie Brothers (closed 1954), both of which mainly built goods wagons.
Tulloch's, mainly manufactured suburban passenger and freight rolling stock, and closed its doors sometime in the late 60's early 70's (not sure of the exact date). They built the first of the double-deck suburban cars.
Goodwin's were just down the road (about a kilometre away) from Comeng - when they closed their doors, Comeng negotiated to take-over the Australian licenses for the Alco (American Locomotive Company) and MLW (Montreal Locomotive Works) agency from them, so by the mid-70's Sydney was down to only two rail manufacturers, Clyde and Comeng.
There was another builder, in Newcastle (Goninan's, now the licensee for GE rail equipment, and currently part of the United Group - also has a factory in Qld at Townsville and in WA at Bassendean) - Goninan's have built the bulk of new stock for NSW since the demise of Comeng.
Clyde is now called Clyde-EDI, and is still in Sydney, but they also built a manufacturing plant in the NSW west at Bathurst. Clyde-EDI was formed out of the merger of Clyde, in Granville, NSW, and Walkers in Maryborough, Qld.
I presume that most of Comeng's skilled workforce, drifted off to the other remaining builders or simply left the industry altogether.
I don't think it is a case of "If a company cannot compete,and still give their workers decent conditions, they often go under". Comeng did compete, very well with realistic tendering costs, and excellent engineering, and had fair and reasonable working conditions, at least equal with its contemporaries.
The main problem was, one sector of the workshop had a number of union agitators, causing the underlying problem. Comeng was a total 'union house', you had to be a member of a union to work there. These union 'stirrers' would call a series of 'rolling strikes', just long enough to disrupt production - then on the basis of 'brother unions', another trade would go out for half an hour, they'd come back in, then another trade go out - this went on in many cases all day. As all the work generally involved a large number of different trades being involved collaboratively with a single contract, this lead to extended build times, and consequently late deliveries.
I worked for Comeng for three years from the mid to late 70's, and experienced the strikes first hand - over those three years, I would guess that at least 10-15% of the total production time was lot to strikes - at one stage the unions even called the whole of the Engineering Design Office out with them - this is the only time in my life I have participated in a strike - a matter I had no control over - I lost two days pay because of this. It was a case of do as the union demanded, or suffer the consequences of being branded a 'scab' and black-banned from the industry. When I left the company, the very first act I did was to terminate my union membership - I have not worked for any union employer since.
The 'Loss of orders is nearly always due to poor management' - in this case, the late deliveries were a major factor in the loss of orders - the situation eventually came under some sort of control when some new management was brought in - they terminated whole sections of workers (ALL the workers in a section - no favoritism shown) then they selectively re-hired some of those workers back, without the 'union stirrers'. This tactic enable the situation to settle down a bit, but the damage had already been done, the customers started taking their business elsewhere.
The remaining manufacturers, while still essentially Australian, now have substantial ownership (often the controlling ownership) by overseas companies.
