The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
A DREAM THAT DIED
Silicon Glen: From Ships To Microchips - BBC1
When I first joined my local golf club I was impressed by the number of members who lived very comfortably on the big, fat pensions paid to them by IBM. Some of them had taken advantage of this largesse when they were in their early 50s. They were the lucky ones who got in at the ground floor, when IBM built its massive plant outside Greenock in 1952.
Silicon Glen: From Ships To Microchips traced the history of the rise and fall of the west of Scotland branch of the US giant, just two miles from my front door. Of course, by the time I bought my house in 1989, the writing was on the wall for the thousands of employees. Now nothing remains of the mile-long structure that brought financial security to hundreds of families in the area.
There was a lot of technical info in the documentary that was beyond me, but the real heart of the programme lay in the sheer pride those early workers still feel in their achievements. And that pride is justified.
When every IBM plant outside of America vied to produce the first PCs, the expertise of the Greenock employees won the day. They had lived up to the reputation of their forebears in the shipbuilding industry who had brought worldwide respect for the term Clyde-built.
For the first time, workers in the area could afford to buy their own homes. They no longer had to address their bosses as Mr.
With the more egalitarian American ethos, everyone was on first-name terms. The “them and us” culture that prevailed in British industry, and which contributed to the collapse of the UK’s manufacturing base, did not exist on the IBM campus.
IBM’s anti-union stance was supported by 96% of the workforce. As one former employee said, the company told you what you would be paid, and what hours you would work. But the company also gave you the opportunity to rise through the ranks.
One man said he had held 15 different positions in his time there.
Sadly, the wheels came off when rival companies cloned IBM’s products. In 1993 the company suffered the greatest corporate loss in history.
The manufacturing side was transferred to China under licence. A call centre was built on the site. I let out my granny flat to a succession of the call-centre workers, but none lasted more than a few months.
One Dutch chap discovered he could make 10 times more than he was being paid by playing online poker. He chucked the job and headed for Shetland. I heard later that his luck ran out and he was left with what he was wearing, just in case you’re tempted to tell your boss what he can do with his job, but I digress.
I liked the revelation that Stanley Kubrick had requested the help of IBM when he was making 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a computer goes mad and destroys the spaceship. Strangely enough, they granted his request. Perhaps they hadn’t read the script. And this is a company whose logo is Think, something that computers just can’t do.