|
|
Post by John on Jan 22, 2016 14:45:03 GMT -5
I was just looking around and found one of Boulby's Mine Managers from the early years is volunteer Mine Manager at the old Skinningrove Ironstone mine, which is now a mining museum. Alan Chilton was a no nonsense Manager, he called a spade a spade but we found him pretty fair.
Anyone interested in the museum, here is the link. ironstonemuseum.co.uk/
|
|
|
|
Post by Minutor on Mar 18, 2016 10:38:08 GMT -5
I was just looking around and found one of Boulby's Mine Managers from the early years is volunteer Mine Manager at the old Skinningrove Ironstone mine, which is now a mining museum. Alan Chilton was a no nonsense Manager, he called a spade a spade but we found him pretty fair.
Anyone interested in the museum, here is the link. ironstonemuseum.co.uk/ That's interesting, good to read he is still alive and in the area. |
|
|
|
Post by John on Mar 18, 2016 11:35:48 GMT -5
I was just looking around and found one of Boulby's Mine Managers from the early years is volunteer Mine Manager at the old Skinningrove Ironstone mine, which is now a mining museum. Alan Chilton was a no nonsense Manager, he called a spade a spade but we found him pretty fair.
Anyone interested in the museum, here is the link. ironstonemuseum.co.uk/ That's interesting, good to read he is still alive and in the area.  the fitting Shop Steward and Works Convener a mouth full of crap, and a hurried tradesman meeting was being called.
Alan hadn't been at Boulby very long, he'd been moved in from South Africa after Gabbitas something or other had moved back to SA. Alan was NCB trained, held a Class1 Ticket and also held a Bsc in Mining Engineering, so was a highly qualified Manager.
He was also a no nonsense man, he said it like it was, in true pitman language...LOL
Moral was rockbottom on the engineering staff, a very frustrating time of company cut backs on spending, so we'd get a breakdown, send to the stores for parts only to find out they were out of stock. Then off to find something that could be cannibalized for the parts needed. Meanwhile the clock was ticking, and we'd get the blame for excessive downtime. Not even mentioning how short staffed we were. Electrical department the worst. Each shift had three elecs, and several fitters, so the fitters weren't under the same manning problems we had.
We were all ordered to meet in the old annex cabins behind the changing rooms after everyone had gone underground, where we met up with Alan, who wasn't exactly very pleased, but after a few minutes he found out what the problems were and that his undermanagement wasn't passing valuable information on to him, for which he apologized, he apologized to Jim too, then got down to finding out what the grievances were.
He made some promises, which he kept!! One was he wanted to be kept updated by his staff or he'd kick ass, he promised he'd look into and rectify the problem with spare parts, he also promised to look into tradesmen staffing levels, although he tried his best, that didn't work out. The company carried out a national advertising campaign for skilled mining elecs and fitters. But at that time NCB elecs were getting much better pay/bonus and housing, so no chance of poaching labour off the NCB, fitters they did get, mainly steelworks fellers who adapted extremely well.
John Blower and myself were doing some maintenance on 6-1 belt GEB's, when Alan walked around the corner and caught us swinging our hammers at the door, a ritual we always carried out, bloody door was out of alignment and the only way to open it was brute force and ignorance. Been reported on our PM sheets for over a year!!.
"Do you always treat my GEB's this way??" said Alan, "Just this one we said"
He asked the reasons and we told him. Next ANDO day we changed that GEB for a new one, and the old one went back to Wallacetown Engineering to get the door realigned.
I think Alan got a lot of respect over the moral issue, we had someone who showed he cared what was going on. |
|
the fitting Shop Steward and Works Convener a mouth full of crap, and a hurried tradesman meeting was being called.