Roskov, Book 26 by Geoff Wolak

Author:Geoff Wolak [Wolak, Geoff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Cement

Our new cement deal with Hastings meant that we had cheaper cement available, a scheme against us that had backfired badly for the conspirators. We also had a load of cement from Ross Daniels, and we would use it to assist Barratts and others, a 25% discount on the normal cost of cement.

I also arranged for cement to be sent the builders’ training facility down in Peterborough, then I headed that way myself, the rain holding off.

I found the apartment buildings outside to be complete, the leisure centre open and busy, the line of apartments now showing signs of life, and the sale of apartments had paid towards the site, and the training costs.

Inside, I found it busier than before, and the manager’s first words were, ‘It’s getting busy.’

‘You have fixed-size classes?’ I asked.

‘Not all the time, and we have busy night classes and weekend lessons, and we now do an intensive ten-day course on bricklaying and building, for lads that just want those skills.’

‘Do you get any lads from Northern Ireland?’

‘We get old men, not lads, they worked at Harland Wolf and were made redundant, did a building course, some crane work, and they come here to get signed off. Got about thirty of them here at the moment.’

‘How many men qualify each month?’

‘Around two hundred a month, plus another eighty part-timers, and that’s nudging up. We grabbed more of the land and built more classrooms, had more cabins brought in for lads to sleep in.’

‘So … fifteen hundred men a year,’ I noted.

‘Same again in Newcastle, big place it is, and Liverpool does about sixty a month, no cranes or diggers work there. And there’s now a place in Swindon.’

‘So we’ll have more builders in the future…’

‘Normal route is the apprentice route; they get a job and learn as they go, low wages to start and then better wages later on. Not just us that’s training them.’

‘Are there any builders sat idle anywhere?’

He shot me a look. ‘Not a fucking one! Most work on your projects. Had some Dutch and French lads come over, got many French crane drivers as well. Got some lads that worked in Corsica as well, back here now and working in London.’

‘There were British lads working in Germany?’ I asked.

‘Aye, and they like it over there, good wages, now they compete with Polish lads – who ask for a third of the money. Some are coming back.’

I nodded. ‘Those Polish workers will be over here soon, and … then we’ll have issues.’

‘This EU expansion stuff?’

‘Could see a hundred thousand Polish builders turn up.’

‘Be cheap labour, but a riot as well from the existing builders; they won’t want to lose their jobs to some fucking foreigners.’

‘It’s what the EU is all about, working and living in other countries, but adding in the former Soviet states is a mistake, they should wait – and boost those countries first.’

‘Be a mess when they come,’ he warned, shaking his head.

‘Anything you need here?’

‘More hours in the day,

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