The Workers

Linlithgow Academy Pupils and Staff visit New Lanark

THE WORKERS

David Dale was kind to all his workers. He employed people to watch machines, mend the broken threads, carry the full bobbins, put the empty bobbins on the machines, and keep the machines clean and oiled. Many of his workers wanted to please him and so worked well.

Dale didn't want to be like other mill owners who exploited their workers, so he did not allow any children under the age of ten to work in his mills. Other mill owners had children of six years old working around dangerous, unguarded machinery.

No one in the New Lanark mill was to be beaten by the overseers. Instead, the silent monitor system was used to monitor the workers work, and attitude towards it. The silent monitor was a small box, hung above the workers heads. Depending on how well the workers were working, the overseers would turn the box to a colour, and if it was black, this meant the worker was not working satisfactorily. Many other mill owners ripped their workers off. Owen paid his workers in cash so they could spend their wages anywhere, unlike other mill owners who gave their workers tokens, which could only be spent in the village shop.
As a man who cared for his workers, Dale, built quite good, if still over crowded, houses.