Immigrants and Apprentices: Solutions to the Post-War Labour Shortage in the West Yorkshire Wool Textile Industry, 1945–1980

Abstract

After the Second World War, the wool textile industry faced a significant labour shortage as its traditional workers escaped the poor wages and conditions of wool mills for better-paying, cleaner jobs. Three broad solutions to this crisis were adopted: the employment of immigrants, mainly from the Indian Subcontinent and Eastern Europe, the re-formatting and promotion of apprenticeships and the recruitment work undertaken by the Wool Industry Training Board. Of these solutions, employing immigrants was by far the most successful in bringing workers into the industry, while the latter two were resounding failures. In prioritising the recruitment of young, white, British men, the industry, trade unions and government missed a key opportunity to train immigrants and women to take the places of the skilled workers they so desperately sought.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the two anonymous readers who provided incisive and encouraging criticism on an earlier draft of this article; the Pasold Research Fund who provided a PhD Bursary which funded part of the research this article is based on; Laura Ugolini and Mary Brooks, Editors of Textile History, for their helpful comments on the article; and her supervisors at the University of York, Elizabeth Buettner, David Howell and David Clayton, for their constant support and advice.