Today at 2.00pm production finally ends at the first original remaining Hoover Washing Machine Factory in the world!!!
"WHEN the Hoover Factory opened in Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil, a little over 60 years ago, it was seen as the shining beacon to a glowing post-war future.Merthyr in 1948 was an area when coal was still very much king, so the opportunity to work in the world of bright white goods was a dream to be grasped.As the manufacturing lines go dark for the final time today, that dream ends.Many of the 337 workers who receive their P45s will take to the streets this lunchtime in a final show of defiance.It may well be a dignified and resolute march along the route of the Taff into the town, but it will echo a time some 25 years ago when taking to the streets to fight for work was commonplace.This week’s anniversary of the miners’ strike brings back memories of discord to those ex-miners who, having lost their jobs when the final mines of the Valleys closed around 15 years ago, find themselves once again looking at a grim future.For an area like Merthyr Tydfil the impact will be hard.In the grand scheme of things, the numbers might not stack up in the same way as they do globally with other businesses fighting the recession, but the effect will be just as profound.Heavy industry having long since left the valley, the few manufacturing jobs that were left were there to be cherished, offering a much-needed opportunity for security, relatively well-paid work and enhanced skills.
Now those options are going, the future promised all those decades ago looks bleak.The economic downturn, when it begins its recovery, will not see companies like Hoover step back into the breach.Complete with its football, bowls and cricket teams, the company reflected the all-encompassing ideas put forward by Rowntree, Cadbury and Fry years earlier.A factory complete with a stage in its social club will be unlikely to be included in the plans for 21st century businesses.And, as such, Hoover’s demise will mean more than just the loss of jobs.For many years it was the gateway to the town, an architectural 1940s icon on the Cardiff to North Wales road that highlighted the end of the dirty, mine-scarred industrial south and opened up the possibility of the beauty of the Brecon Beacons.Over the years the company has been hit with setbacks and staff losses, but much like the people who entered the gates it proved to be resilient.
Adaptability proved to be the key, with the company looking to move from washing machines to futuristic motorised transport in the same year as the miners’ strike took its grip on the Valleys. However, the ill-fated Sinclair C5 project was to be a false dawn.The debacle of the free flights offer some 17 years ago didn’t kill off the company and, while staffing levels continued to fall, Hoover maintained its place as the area’s premier employer.
By 2pm today that will come to an end, skilled jobs based originally on apprenticeships and latterly on core skills, will leave behind an administration and warehousing rump, although no- one knows for how long.The 25-acre site will soon become a very different icon for a town already blighted with a reputation for being a sickness and deprivation capital. The shuttered doors and empty car parks may give visitors to Merthyr the impression of entering an economic ghost town.And that will be a shame. Because Hoover’s closure is not due to failings from the loyal workforce. Rather, whereas Merthyr labour was cheap and accessible in 1948, those same qualities can now be found half a world away.Now the flights that threaten Hoovers future aren’t those of holidaymakers cashing in on ill- thought-out promotions – but rather the flights of freight bringing in ever-cheaper goods in a cash-strapped world."
"WHEN the Hoover Factory opened in Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil, a little over 60 years ago, it was seen as the shining beacon to a glowing post-war future.Merthyr in 1948 was an area when coal was still very much king, so the opportunity to work in the world of bright white goods was a dream to be grasped.As the manufacturing lines go dark for the final time today, that dream ends.Many of the 337 workers who receive their P45s will take to the streets this lunchtime in a final show of defiance.It may well be a dignified and resolute march along the route of the Taff into the town, but it will echo a time some 25 years ago when taking to the streets to fight for work was commonplace.This week’s anniversary of the miners’ strike brings back memories of discord to those ex-miners who, having lost their jobs when the final mines of the Valleys closed around 15 years ago, find themselves once again looking at a grim future.For an area like Merthyr Tydfil the impact will be hard.In the grand scheme of things, the numbers might not stack up in the same way as they do globally with other businesses fighting the recession, but the effect will be just as profound.Heavy industry having long since left the valley, the few manufacturing jobs that were left were there to be cherished, offering a much-needed opportunity for security, relatively well-paid work and enhanced skills.
Now those options are going, the future promised all those decades ago looks bleak.The economic downturn, when it begins its recovery, will not see companies like Hoover step back into the breach.Complete with its football, bowls and cricket teams, the company reflected the all-encompassing ideas put forward by Rowntree, Cadbury and Fry years earlier.A factory complete with a stage in its social club will be unlikely to be included in the plans for 21st century businesses.And, as such, Hoover’s demise will mean more than just the loss of jobs.For many years it was the gateway to the town, an architectural 1940s icon on the Cardiff to North Wales road that highlighted the end of the dirty, mine-scarred industrial south and opened up the possibility of the beauty of the Brecon Beacons.Over the years the company has been hit with setbacks and staff losses, but much like the people who entered the gates it proved to be resilient.
Adaptability proved to be the key, with the company looking to move from washing machines to futuristic motorised transport in the same year as the miners’ strike took its grip on the Valleys. However, the ill-fated Sinclair C5 project was to be a false dawn.The debacle of the free flights offer some 17 years ago didn’t kill off the company and, while staffing levels continued to fall, Hoover maintained its place as the area’s premier employer.
By 2pm today that will come to an end, skilled jobs based originally on apprenticeships and latterly on core skills, will leave behind an administration and warehousing rump, although no- one knows for how long.The 25-acre site will soon become a very different icon for a town already blighted with a reputation for being a sickness and deprivation capital. The shuttered doors and empty car parks may give visitors to Merthyr the impression of entering an economic ghost town.And that will be a shame. Because Hoover’s closure is not due to failings from the loyal workforce. Rather, whereas Merthyr labour was cheap and accessible in 1948, those same qualities can now be found half a world away.Now the flights that threaten Hoovers future aren’t those of holidaymakers cashing in on ill- thought-out promotions – but rather the flights of freight bringing in ever-cheaper goods in a cash-strapped world."
