THE HISTORY OF TUNGSRAM 1896-1945 - MEK

TUNGSRAM 34signed high priority to the setting up of the laboratory,it took steps towards exempting Hanaman from militaryservice. (173)By establishing a research laboratory the managementof TUNGSRAM hoped to create an advancedresearch centre, rather than simply give assistance tothe production of incandescent lamps. TUNGSRAM'Slong-term goal was to be listed (once the hostilitieswere over) among the companies which exchangedinventions and licenses with General Electric Co. freeof charge.As Hanaman could not be exempted from doingmilitary service, the setting up of the research laboratoryhad to wait until after 1918.The war took a great toll in the work-force ofTUNGSRAM: 286 of its workers did military service in1914/1915, and their number grew to 349 in 1915/1916.The work-force needed to maintain and improve productioncould only be increased by taking on femalestaff. Still, the permanent fluctuation continued topose severe problems in the factory's running: moreand more female workers chose to work in ammunitionfactories, wherethe work was easier to master andthe employees were able to quit for the spring and thesummer to do agricultural work. As their training inTUNGSRAM took weeks — or even months in somecases—, it was very difficult to replace them. In certaindepartments ninety percent of the female workerstaken on during the Summer of 1917 left the factorybefore completing theirtraining. The company wantedto make up for the shortage of workers by raising theproduction norms, but in fact achieved just the opposite:even the experienced female workers slacked off.In the question of labour shortage the board of directorscould see only one solution: they proposed themanagement full automatization, as well as the modernizationof the existing machinery, to the managementin order to switch from manual labour tomachine power in as many work phases as possible.(175)The huge labourturnover, however, could be assignednot in the least to the fact that during the first years ofthe war the company did not care much to raise theworkers' pay. With their pay frozen, the workers wereunable to keep up with the rapidly growing prices, inspite of putting in longer and longer hours. At the sametime, the profitability of the company, as we havealready pointed out earlier, rocketed to new heightsevery day.Beside low pay, the working conditions were alsodeplorable. The female staff working next to thevacuum stoves operated at 400 C often had to put upwith an almost unbeareble heat. The position and thecircumstances of the skilled workers also rapidly deterioratedas a result of the war effort. (176)In 1917 a number of engineers and shift leaders,headed by Gyula Hevesi and Armin Helfgott, joined theNational Trade Union of Private and CommercialEmployees. On the initiative of the organized technicaland administrative staff the organized technical andadministrative staff the Trade Union Council calledtogether the female workers to discuss the situationand the future. On the meeting the women decided tojoin the Trade Union with great enthusiasm. Themanagement looked suspiciously on the spreading ofthe union movement, even though they were unabletostop it. The marketing manager, Lipot Aschner was theonly one who, in the case of the staff working in theadministration, attempted to put an end to the organizing:he called the staff in his office and informed themthat all those joining the Union would be immediatelysacked.The administrators could not be scared off: theynotified Aschner in a letter that the entire workforceand the administration, supported by the Union,would go on strike, unless he withdrew his threat. Atthe end there was no need for industrial action, as themanagement, seeing the united front put up by theworkers, with held from making further steps. (177)The organized movement of the workers and employeeswas not without effect. On the Trade Union'sinitiative the workers were given pay rises twice in1917, and three times in 1918. The gradual increase inthe hourly wages did not burden the company, as itcould easily pass the extra costs on to the customers.(178) At the same time, rising wages and salaries