HN 2: The British and their Works

at the following meeting on 20th December 1946 a more conciliatory
atmosphere returned. The adversaries agreed to draw
up the election records more carefully in future, and recorded in
the minutes that payment of a Christmas gratuity and the
distribution of "Christstollen" to the employees had been agreed
with the factory management. 120
There was in any case no time to be wasted in party-political disputes.
The works council was gradually involved in the provision
of the employees with foodstuffs, clothing and household items,
which initially absorbed almost all the available energy. Food
was rationed, although people engaged in physical work could
get special allowances. In the case of light work this was not a
lot, but for heavy and very heavy work it could be considerable.
Because there were no foreign aid supplies, in March 1946 the in
any case sparse rations were further cut back, with the result
that the average person had only 1,014 calories per day. The chief
trustee Hermann Münch complained in a letter to the "Landesernährungsamt"
(State Food Office) in Hanover of the first signs
of physical deterioration in the VW workforce, as in spring 1946
only 28 per cent of the employees were allocated special rations.
The most important demands of the "Wirtschaftsgruppe
Metall" at its foundation meeting in July 1946 were therefore
the increase of fat rations and the incorporation of the unions in
the control of foodstuffs production and distribution. 121 The
works council did all it could to see these demands met, with the
result that by November of that year, 73 per cent of the factory
employees were receiving special allowances. 122
Despite this, undernourishment and deficiency symptoms
remained a serious problem in the workforce. In Lower Saxony,
the daily rations issued were 1,653 calories for ordinary consumers,
1,790 for people partly engaged in heavy work, 2,443 for
heavy workers and 3,041 calories for very heavy workers. In
November 1947 the Public Health Branch conducted a mass
examination of 773 Volkswagen plant workers, almost three
quarters of whom were obtaining extra food from the black
market or in barter deals, or from their own gardens. Following
the examination, the doctors criticised the subjects’ insufficient
calorific intake. The men’s average weight was 58.4 kilograms,
while the women’s was 49.1 kilograms. The 221 heavy workers
examined were not even in the worst shape compared to earlier
surveys. The most malnourished employees were the ordinary
consumers. 123 A perceptible improvement for the workforce was
effected by the currency bonus from the export business, which
amounted to 44,000 Reichsmark at the end of November 1947.
As agreed between the factory management and the works
council, half of this was used to provide the workforce with food
and clothing, and the other half to rebuild the factory. 124
In the matter of working hours policy, the VW works council was
in a difficult position. In order to meet the production increase
envisaged by the Board of Control in the summer of 1946, the
management demanded that the weekly working hours have to
be increased from 42.5 to 48 – in other words, introduction of
Saturday working. Since the British were threatening to close
the factory if production was not increased, the works council
was unable to withhold its agreement to this demand. It did
however point out that the current programme placed the
workforce under extreme strain and that many workers were